


Black Diamond

by never_love_a_wild_thing



Series: On the Same Side [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Accidental Plot, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Law Enforcement, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, POV Alternating, Skiing, Snow, Some Plot, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Undercover as a Couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-09 18:59:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12894630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/never_love_a_wild_thing/pseuds/never_love_a_wild_thing
Summary: Liam and Theo go undercover as an engaged couple at a ski resort for a case. Theo likes Liam. Liam might kind of like Theo too. Not that either of them would ever admit it.“Who’s at the door, babe?” Theo called from behind him. Liam could have sworn he felt his eye twitch.“Our neighbors-“ he turned, but Theo was right there, sliding an arm around his waist. Not wearing a shirt. Why?Mostly fluff with a little bit of plot towards the end.





	1. Liam

**Author's Note:**

> So this is basically just self-indulgent drivel at this point. I wanted Liam and Theo skiing, but it ended up being so cute that I got carried away. Fake/pretend relationships are my favorite trope :) 
> 
> That said, it just kind of jumps right into the middle of things, so the details of what touching, etc. is allowed is agreed behind the scenes, but it is mentioned that everything is consensual and can be stopped at any time.  
> This also means that there is little background as to what Thiam are doing/why they are there, and to be perfectly honest I don't think it matters that much, since I wrote it pretty much entirely for the fluff. If it matters to you, though, they are FBI on an undercover operation to stop terrorists. (The actual plot part of it, as well as background characters, are inspired by 6b).
> 
> I'm about half finished with it at the moment, and planning on it being 4 chapters, totaling about 20k words, but there may or may not be an epilogue.
> 
> Enjoy :) And please feel free to leave comments!
> 
> (Inspired by Season 6b of Teen Wolf, which, obviously, I don't own)

Liam was still fuming when they pulled into the parking lot of the main lodge.

“Chin up, buttercup,” Theo muttered to him as they hustled inside, standing close together.

Liam was distracted from glaring at him by the huge stuffed moose head perched high on the wall. “Um…is that a moose head?”

Theo looked up. “Yep,” he said. He slung an arm around Liam’s waist, ignoring the dirty look Liam gave him, and dragged him up to the front desk. “Hi, we have a reservation under McCall.”

“Of course, sir, just a moment,” the very professional woman at the computer told them.

Liam looked around. The lobby, at least, was very rustic but also incredibly fancy at the same time. Was log cabin chic a thing? He wished Mason was with him to tell him if he was being an idiot. Fucking Theo.

“Very good. Your suite is on the third floor, here are your keys. Turn right out of this parking lot, and it will be your first right.”

Theo thanked her and then manhandled Liam back out into the cold. “I hate the cold,” Liam told him.

Theo pulled him closer, walking faster. Liam tucked his nose under his scarf and pushed him away. “Not _that_ much,” he amended, pulling at the handle to the passenger door. It remained locked. “Asshole,” he added, teeth chattering.

Theo smirked and unlocked the car, taking his sweet time to turn on the ignition. “If we’re going to do this, then you can’t act like you hate me, Liam,” he said after a few minutes of silence, during which they followed the slush-covered roads to the lodge’s suites.

“Yeah, well you don’t have to act like you’re enjoying this so much,” Liam countered.

“Yes, I do,” Theo put the car in park but didn’t turn it off, which Liam was grateful for. “We’re pretending to be engaged. Acting like we’re enjoying this is literally in the description of this assignment.”

Liam scowled, but said, “I hate it when you’re right.”

“No wonder you’re always so angry, then,” Theo smirked, and then turned the car off and got out. Liam sat frozen for a minute, the cold seeping into his bones with the sudden empty space that Theo had previously occupied. Liam hadn’t realized how close they had been until he was gone. He scrambled out of the car and away from his thoughts to help Theo bring the bags up to their room.

Their “room” was really a suite, equal parts fancy and cozy, much like the rest of the lodge. There was a living room with a fire place and a full sized open kitchen. The bed in the master bedroom was huge, across from another fireplace, and decorated in lots of soft materials and neutral shades.

“Uh…Theo?” Liam called as he stared into the room.

“Yeah?” He heard the soft thud of a bag dropping, and Theo appeared at his shoulder.

“The wall is windows,” he pointed out.

“Pretty,” Theo said.

“Whatever. You can have the bed, then.”

“You’re going to sleep on the couch?” Theo raised his eyebrows.

“It pulls out to a queen.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

Liam froze on his way back into the living room. “What do you mean?” he demanded, “Of course it does!”

“It’s just a couch, Liam, it doesn’t pull out.” Theo crossed his arms and watched Liam pulling on the edge of the couch with all his might.

“Not – with – that – attitude –“ He gritted out. “Are you going to help me or what?”

Theo plucked one of the cushions off the couch and looked pointedly at him. It was just a couch.

“Shit,” Liam fell back onto his heels, “I take it back, I’ll sleep in the bed where everyone can watch me.”

“You forfeited!” Theo called over his shoulder, already dodging into the bedroom to stake his claim. “It’s mine now!”

Liam bolted up and raced for the bed, pouncing onto it seconds after Theo and therefore smacking him as hard as he could with a pillow. “You suck,” he informed Theo while he was still spluttering.

“Yeah, and you’re five fucking years old,” Theo wiped at his mouth, “Seriously?” He grabbed the pillow behind him and smacked Liam across the face.

They were in the throes of an all-out pillow fight, when a loud knocking sounded at the door. They froze and looked through the doorway towards the living room. Liam looked down at Theo questioningly. He was kneeling over him, knees on either side of his hips, pillow still lifted high in the air.

“You get it,” Theo whispered, reaching up to…mess up Liam’s hair? As if it wasn’t messed up already. He shrugged, but climbed off of the bed, tossing the pillow back at Theo’s face.

“Just a minute,” he called, as the knocking persisted.

He opened the door to a young couple smiling politely. “Hi,” he said, still somewhat out of breath, “Can I help you?”

“I’m Aaron, this is my girlfriend Quinn. We’re next door-“

“Oh!” Liam’s face lit up in realization, “Oh were we being loud? Sorry, we got really carried away…”

“Who’s at the door, babe?” Theo called from behind him. Liam could have sworn he felt his eye twitch.

“Our neighbors-“ he turned, but Theo was right there, sliding an arm around his waist. Not wearing a shirt. _Why?_

“Hi, I’m Theo. Liam’s fiancé.” He shook hands with his free arm, never letting go of Liam.

“This is, um, Aaron and Quinn, right?” Liam said, quickly.

They nodded. “We actually just heard – um, saw that you were in and we thought,” Quinn looked at Aaron, “We thought it might be fun to make vacation friends. If you wanted to grab dinner one night or something?”

“That could be fun,” Theo said, pulling Liam into his side, causing Liam to brace his hand on Theo’s – very firm – chest. “What do you think?”

Liam met Theo’s eyes and cleared his throat. “Sounds good to me.”

“Well,” Aaron said, awkwardly, “We’d better get going. We’ll catch up with you guys later about dinner, okay?”

They all said their goodbyes and then Liam shut the door, leaning heavily against it. “What the fuck?” he complained.

“That’s them,” Theo said, quickly unzippering his bag, and rummaging through it.

“Yeah, I know,” Liam said, “Why did they come over here, though? Why did they invite us to dinner? They can’t have made us already. We just got here!”

“They thought we were having sex,” Theo said, pulling the bag of files and supplies out of the bottom of the duffle bag, and moving to put it in the safe.

“They – What?!” Liam scrambled after Theo. “Because of the pillow fight. That’s why you took your shirt off,” he realized.

Theo glanced at him instead of nodding. “We’re going to have to sleep in the same bed if the walls are that thin. I think we share a balcony with them too…”

“Why did they invite us to dinner?”

Theo stared at him as he closed the safe. “Seriously? They make friends with us, maybe we won’t have crazy loud sex every night on the other side of the wall.”

“Makes sense,” Liam shrugged. He looked at Theo quickly, “Not that we’d do that anyways.”

Theo rolled his eyes. “Okay, what now?”

“Recon,” Liam suggested, “We need to scope the place out.”

“That could take a while,” Theo told him.

“Why do you think we’re here for so long? We can at least get some of the lodge before dinner.”

“Right, and we’ll hit the slopes tomorrow,” Theo agreed. “Where do you want to start today?”

Liam sat at the table and pulled the information guide towards him. “Pool and sauna? Come back here and then go to dinner and check out the town?”

“Alright. It’s almost 3:30, so let’s go.”

Liam went into the bathroom to change into his swimsuit, and got distracted taking pictures of how huge and fancy-cozy everything was and sending them to Mason.

“Liam, let’s go,” Theo called as he sent the last snapchat.

“Coming!” He pulled on his sweatpants and shirt and vest and slipped out of the bathroom, opening Mason’s snapchat, which was a picture of him winking with the text “Hope you’re having fun with Theo”. He scowled and sent his reaction to Mason, before pulling on his scarf and coat and hat, looking for his shoes.

Theo was watching him in amusement. “We’re just going back over to the main lodge.”

“Yeah, well it’s still like negative 100 degrees out,” Liam grumbled.

“It’s just cause you’re short,” he teased.

Liam sucker-punched him on his way to his boots, which he had conveniently left at the door so he wouldn’t forget where they were.

“Asshole,” Theo wheezed.

“We’re literally the same exact height,” Liam snapped, “You deserved that.”

“The fuck I did,” he complained.

“Let’s go before you make me punch you again.”

They left the suite and walked across the snowy ground to the huge lodge. They could see the pool in a glass wing of the building, the windows looking a little steamed, and the lights bright and welcoming in contrast to the bleak sun, low in the winter sky. Liam pulled his coat tighter around him, glancing at Theo out of the corner of his eye, daring him to say something or try to walk too close to him. Theo didn’t appear to notice, but Liam felt his feet quicken to match Theo’s pace.

He let out a relieved breath when they entered the lodge, and saw the corners of Theo’s mouth tip up.

“Don’t say anything,” he warned.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, _babe_ ,” Theo full out smirked.

“I hate you so much,” Liam growled.

“Not a fan of the cold,” Theo explained easily to a very confused-looking old couple, who were leaving the pool area. He rested a hand lightly on Liam’s lower back as they went inside and said lowly into his ear, “At least look like you might be in love with me part of the time.”

Liam glanced at him in surprise. “That’s a little bit better,” Theo assured him.

Liam rolled his eyes and shed his layers to be stored in one of the lockers that lined the wall. He paused when he was down to his long-sleeved t-shirt and sweatpants. It was warm in the locker room, but not, he felt, warm enough to be all the way down to his swimsuit. Theo seemed to have no problem with it, already stowing all of his clothes in the locker next to Liam’s.

“Let’s do the sauna first,” he suggested.

Liam nodded eagerly and stripped off his sweatpants, hesitating once more at his shirt.

“Come on, you’ll warm up fast,” Theo insisted. He came close to Liam and tugged on the hem of his shirt.

“We’ll go in the sauna and sweat it out and then go in the hot tub and watch everybody outside be cold, okay?”

It was all said very tenderly, and Liam felt like he should be annoyed, but he wasn’t. Especially when Theo grabbed a towel from the nearby basket and thrust it at Liam. “Let’s go, babe,” he winked.

The sauna was uneventful and an unlikely place for nefarious business. It was small, with a few other people inside, and nowhere to store anything. They only stayed for a few minutes before going back to the pool area, where Liam actually stayed in the regular pool for about five whole minutes before moving to the hot-tub. Theo took a few more minutes doing lazy laps back and forth before joining him.

“We were skiing the other side of the mountain today,” a guy who looked just a little younger than them was saying, “We had to come back early cause our friends had dinner reservations, but we’re probably going to do some diamonds on this side in a bit. Maybe night skiing…Which slope do you think is the hardest that you’ve done here?”

“We just got here like an hour ago,” Liam said, already starting to feel irritated.

“Well don’t even bother with True Alpha unless you’re a really good skier,” he continued.

“Gabe,” his friend protested, looking slightly embarrassed.

“What? It’s a double diamond –“ A shadow appeared over him, and they all looked up to see Theo sliding easily into the steaming water.

“Hey,” he said, somewhat awkwardly, glancing to Liam for introduction.

Liam rolled his eyes. “This is my fiancé, Theo,” he sighed, moving over to make room. It was circular, and there were only the four of them sitting in it at the moment, but Theo sank down into the water very close to Liam, stretching an arm out behind his shoulders.

“Gabe.”

“Nolan.”

“I think I heard you guys talking about some of the trails, have you been here long?” Theo asked.

“Two days,” the guy called Nolan said, “We’re leaving in three.”

“Any recommendations for things to do?” Liam asked, leaning into Theo and trying to look casual and in love or whatever Theo was always nagging him about. Theo looked at him.

“Stick to the blue trails unless you’re good skiers,” Gabe insisted.

“I think we’ll probably take it easy with the skiing this trip. Maybe we can ski some diamonds tomorrow before we’re too tired,” Theo winked at Liam.

Liam felt his ears get warm at the implication, but just shrugged. “I’m the better skier, but Theo used to ice skate, so we might have to do some of that too,” he said.

“They turn on these colorful lights under the ice at night. You should try it then,” Nolan offered.

Theo nodded and pulled Liam closer as a pair of girls descended the stairs into the hot tub. They were mostly talking to each other, but Gabe and Nolan seemed much more interested in them than in Liam and Theo, particularly when they squished in between Liam and Nolan with polite smiles.

“Hi,” Nolan said to the girl that he was sitting next to, inching over a little to give them space.

She returned the greeting with a small smile, but Liam was suddenly distracted by Theo’s arm dropping to catch him around the waist and pull him impossibly closer, and then closer still, until he felt himself being lifted just enough to slide onto Theo’s lap. He whipped around and glared at him, but Theo smiled, almost fondly, and said, “There we go, that should be enough room.”

Nolan and Gabe looked slightly disappointed, but the girls smiled in thanks. “Are you two together?” one of them asked.

“We’re engaged,” Theo replied, as Liam was still fuming over being manhandled. Again.

“That’s so sweet – congratulations!” The other girl exclaimed, “When’s the wedding?”

“In the summer,” Liam said, with a gooey as he threaded a hand through the short hairs at the back of Theo’s head and pulled hard enough to hurt.

Theo shifted in his seat, adjusting Liam on his lap and glared subtly. The girls cooed over imaginary wedding preparations, eventually dragging the other guys into the conversation and introducing themselves as Sydney and Lori.

Maybe ten minutes later, Liam decided that he was getting too pruney and shifted around in Theo’s lap. “We should probably get going. Don’t we have that reservation at 6:30?”

“Yeah,” Theo nodded, “We still have a bit of time, though.”

Liam climbed off of his lap and out of the hot tub. “Yeah, but I smell like chlorine. I want to take a shower before we go.” He pulled his towel around his shoulders immediately, to keep some of the warmth in.

“Okay, can you grab me my towel?”

“It’s right here,” Liam frowned, picking it up off of the table anyways.

“Thanks, babe,” Theo smiled.

He pulled himself out of the hot tub by the side, facing towards Liam. He grabbed the towel and wrapped it around his waist almost immediately, but Liam saw a tent in his clinging swim shorts before the towel could hide it. He stared for a minute, before his brain caught up as Theo was saying goodbye to the group in the hot tub.

“Bye,” he added, lamely.

“Hopefully we’ll see you guys around!” Sydney added.

They waved and made their way back towards the locker room. “Liam?” Theo asked, carefully, as soon as they were inside, pulling their things out of the cubbies.

“Yeah. I’m gonna go change. In the bathroom. I’ll be right back,” he said quickly, leaving Theo staring after him.

He changed into his clothes in record time and dialed Mason’s number as he sat on the toilet.

“Yo, Liam, what’s up?” Mason answered.

“I think I gave Theo a boner,” Liam whisper shouted as quietly as he could.

“What? Liam, you can’t talk to me about this shit until the operation’s over.”

“Mason, please –“

“Wow, okay, fine. What do you mean you think? How?”

“I was sitting on his lap in the hot tub and then we got out and…”

“And he had a boner?”

“Yes! What do I do?”

“There’s not much you _can_ do, dude. Do you like him?”

“What kind of a question is that? “

“Well, are you attracted to him?”

“What?”

He could practically hear Mason shaking his head. “Never mind. Just act like it’s no big deal. It’s no big deal, right?”

“I…guess?” Liam whispered slowly.

“Great! So it’s fine! Don’t make it awkward. I do just have one question though.”

“Okay?”

“So, is it like a _big_ deal?”

Liam hung up, came out of the stall, and washed his hands. When he returned to the locker room, Theo was waiting, clearly wanting to say something, but a number of strangers had come in while Liam was gone.

“Ready?” he asked tentatively.

Liam nodded and they left the lodge. Theo kept space between them and didn’t try to touch him or start a conversation until they were back in the privacy of their suite.

“I’m sorry,” he said, as soon as the door was closed.

“It’s fine,” Liam said quickly.

“It’s not, I shouldn’t have-“

“No, it’s fine. It’s not like you can really control it, right?”

Theo watched him intently and then nodded slowly. “I don’t want to make it weird though. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable. I’ll sleep on the couch. I’ll stop-”

“Agent Raeken, you are not to compromise this mission,” Liam said in what he was sure was a fantastic impression of their superior, Scott McCall.

Theo snorted.

“Seriously, don’t worry about it. Happens to the best of us. So you better sleep on that giant ass bed with me tonight. Got it?”

“Got it,” Theo smiled slightly.

“Cool. I actually am going to take a shower now.” He slipped into the bathroom and checked his phone as the water heated up. There was a text from Mason that read:

_You didn’t answer my question :(_

Liam rolled his eyes and set it aside. When he got out of the shower, he picked up his phone again and texted back.

_Yes it is._

Mason’s reply was an instantaneous eggplant emoji, which Liam snorted at before leaving the bathroom in a cloud of steam. Theo was laying face down on the bed doing a pretty good impression of a half-naked dead guy, so Liam went back into the bathroom for the bottle of shaving foam and drew a smiley face on his back. Theo grunted.

“Wipe that up or it’s going to get all over the carpet,” he said, turning his head to the side so he could speak.

“No, you have to go look at it in the mirror. It’s a master piece,” Liam told him, going over to his suitcase to find dinner-appropriate clothes. “How fancy is the restaurant?”

Theo pulled himself off of the bed and went into the bathroom to examine his back. Liam watched his muscles stretch and flex as he twisted, forgetting about the clothes in question.

“The restaurant’s nice…wow, Liam, that’s very original.” He rolled his eyes and started the shower.

“Wait, what does _nice_ mean?” Liam asked as the door swung closed. “Damn it.” He looked back down into his suitcase and started pulling out clothes.

By the time they were both ready to go, there were only about fifteen minutes until their reservation, so Theo herded him into the car, which Liam was grateful for when he turned the heat on at full-blast. The town was small, but crowded with vacationers and strung everywhere with tiny lights to illuminate the dark winter. It looked almost like a little Christmas village, or something, Liam thought. Theo parked at the restaurant, which looked warm and cozy in a red wine and cashmere kind of a way. He pulled his coat tighter around him, and Theo walked closer to his side, like he had before they left the pool area.

Inside the restaurant was dark and cozy with low-lit chandeliers and small candles flickering on top of tables covered in white table cloths.

“I thought you said it was just nice,” Liam hissed in Theo’s ear.

“It is,” Theo insisted quietly before approaching the hostess stand. “Hello, I have a reservation for two under the name Raeken.”

Liam stared at him as the hostess checked her logs. They were supposed to use Agent McCall’s name for all of the bookings on this trip, and Theo almost never went off script anymore.

“Right this way, Mr. Raeken,” she smiled at him.

They followed her up a set of stairs to a small table on the second floor, next to a window that looked out over the fairy-tale village. Wine was immediately offered when they sat down, and Liam ordered a bottle of red.

“Why did you book it under your name?” Liam asked as soon as the server had walked away. “And why is this place so fancy? They didn’t even ask if we wanted soda or juice or anything, they just went straight for the wine.”

Theo shook his head, smiling. “It doesn’t make sense for me to use Scott’s name when I’m wining and dining my fiancé,” he shrugged, leaning back to look out the window.

Dinner was lighthearted and easy. Liam was used to being perpetually annoyed by Theo, but somehow he suddenly found himself not wanting to punch him all of the time. When they were finished, Theo advised him to hold off on dessert and they bundled up again before walking outside.

“Theo!” Liam grabbed his arm without thinking, pulling them to a stop on the sidewalk and pointing up at the light night sky. The clouds obscured the stars, but they were so light that it hardly seemed dark enough to be nighttime. Tiny flecks of snow were drifting down from the sky intermittently, gradually picking up volume from when they had first left the restaurant. “It’s snowing!” He looked at him for his reaction, but Theo was just grinning at him, a bigger smile that Liam had ever seen on him. “What?”

“You’ve never seen snow before,” Theo said, the words were there, but he wasn’t teasing. He glanced up at the sky and then threaded his fingers through Liam’s and pulled him along. “Come on, I’ve heard this place gets five stars on yelp for its hot chocolate.”

Liam looked around for people that Theo might have recognized and decided he needed to convince that they were engaged, but nobody seemed to be watching them. Liam let it go, and allowed Theo to lead the way down the street and into a small shop that was warm and crowded with people.

“You really want to wait in line for hot chocolate?” Liam asked.

“The internet says it’s good,” Theo shrugged with a quick smile at him, “Personally I want to try the orange hot chocolate. What about you?”

Liam looked up at the menu. “Coffee? Or maybe just regular hot chocolate?”

“Coffee coffee or coffee flavored hot chocolate?”

Liam shrugged as they moved forwards in line, “Both?”

The line was moving more quickly than he had expected, and within minutes they were at the front. “Hi, can I have one coffee hot chocolate and one orange hot chocolate?” Liam asked quickly, before Theo could try to take over.

He also managed to pay before Theo could even get his wallet out, which he was pretty proud of.

“Seriously?” Theo asked as they moved to wait for their drinks, “Can I at least pay you back? That was like five dollars for a cup of hot chocolate.”

“Well I’m pretty sure you just paid for at least part of dinner, so, no. You can’t.”

Theo frowned, but put his wallet away and grabbed their drinks when they were called.

It was snowing more heavily when they left the little shop, hot chocolates in hand, and Liam felt his breath catch again. Having spent his entire life in California, he hadn’t seen much falling snow in real life, but all of the people wandering around the small town seemed to be taking it in stride. To Liam, it was magical.

“We should do a sleigh ride tomorrow,” Theo suggested, “It’s supposed to snow in the evening.”

Liam glanced at him and burst out laughing.

“What?” Theo frowned.

“You’ve got some facial hair there,” Liam pointed at his lip, which was covered in whipped cream.

Theo rolled his eyes and licked at it. “Gone?”

“No.”

His tongue stretched impressively far towards his nose, but the corners were still white. Liam snorted.

“Oh my god!” Theo complained, wiping at it with his hand.

“You have some on your nose too,” Liam said gleefully.

Theo glared, but his attention was distracted by their neighbors waving from across the street. Liam’s mind whirled, either thinking too much or not at all, and he reached up to lick the whipped cream off of Theo’s nose.

“Now it’s gone,” he said. Theo stared at him in shock, completely speechless. Liam was starting to feel slightly embarrassed, but Aaron and Quinn interrupted them.

“Hey,” Quinn smiled, “Have you guys had dinner yet?”

Theo didn’t look prepared to answer so Liam said, “Yeah, we had reservations at the Howling Wolf. What about you guys?”

“Oh, that’s a shame! We were going to see if you wanted to do dinner tonight, but reservations are probably a good idea. Do you want to try for tomorrow?” She said, glancing at Theo.

“Uh…yeah. Tomorrow would be fun. Maybe a late dinner? We were going to go for a sleigh ride in the evening, I think,” Theo said quickly.

“The sleigh ride’s nice,” Aaron nodded, “We went our first day.”

“Yeah, we’re looking forward to it,” Liam glanced at Theo, who smiled.

“Well we’re heading off to dinner now, so we’ll see you later, I guess?” Quinn said.

They nodded and said their goodbyes and then Liam and Theo continued their walk.

“Thanks for keeping up with the conversation,” Liam grunted.

“ _You_ _licked my nose!”_ Theo exclaimed.

“They were looking at us,” Liam said, slightly uncomfortably.

“So you had to lick my nose?”

“It had whipped cream on it! I’m sorry, okay? I’ll ask next time – “

“No, it’s fine,” Theo said, “You just surprised me.”

“You sure?” Liam looked at him carefully.

“Yeah,” he sighed, lacing his fingers through Liam’s again, for whatever inexplicable reason. “Do you want to go into any of these stores, then, or should we go back?”

“Can we take a look in a couple? I want to get something for Mason.”

He ended up getting a hat with bunny ears and a pink shirt that said “snow bunny”. He had been looking for something more phallic-shaped, but it didn’t seem to be a common shape for ski paraphernalia.

“You could just get him a dildo,” Theo suggested as Liam sulkily got back in the car.

“That defeats the purpose,” he frowned, “It has to look like a dick but not _be_ a dick.”

“A dildo isn’t a dick,” Theo pointed out.

“Yeah, but it’s pretty similar, right?”

“That’s the idea, yeah…”

“Okay, for example, Mason went to Greece last summer and he brought me back a bottle opener shaped like a dick. Not a dildo, but still phallic, get it?”

Theo sighed and shook his head. “I’m not sure _anyone_ gets you and Mason.”

“Scott and Stiles,” Liam cited.

“Yeah, I’m not sure anyone gets _them_ either.”

Liam ran up to the suite when they got back to put on a hat and gloves and put away his souvenirs, while Theo parked the car.

“Seriously?” Theo asked when he returned.

“We’re ice skating. It literally has the word _ice_ in it.”

Theo rolled his eyes, but tucked his hands into his coat pockets and walked very close to Liam all the way over to the outdoor ice rink.

“You should’ve brought gloves,” Liam told him.

“I’m fine,” Theo insisted.

“It’s _ice_ skating, not _nice_ skating.”

Another eye roll brought them to the ice skate rental, which was housed in a small wooden barn.

“You could buy mittens here,” Liam pointed to a rack of mittens.

“Knock it off,” Theo told him, asking the man at the counter for two ice skate rentals and giving him their shoe sizes.

“How do you know my shoe size?” Liam wondered.

“You don’t know mine?” Theo teased.

Liam stuck his tongue out as they received their ice skates and went out to the rink to put them on.

“I don’t know about this,” Theo said.

“Come on,” Liam insisted, “I told those guys you were a professional ice skater. You have to at least look like you’re good at it.”

“You did _not_ tell them that,” Theo said. Liam stood up on the ice in his skates and moved around to stand in from of Theo.

“I mean, basically. But now you have to do it.”

Theo frowned, but rose unsteadily to his feet. Liam put his hands out to draw Theo forwards. He clung on to them for dear life, but stood straight, looking, except for his face like he knew exactly what he was doing.

“It’s just like you’re sliding around your kitchen in socks,” Liam said, starting to skate backwards. Theo’s knees buckled, but he stayed standing.

“I can’t believe you’re making me do this,” he complained.

Liam let go of one hand and laced his fingers through Theo’s with the other. “Just skate, Theo. The faster the better. You’re not going to fall.” He made the mistake of looking ahead, and was bowled into by Theo, both of them crashing to the ground.

“You suck,” Liam grunted from under him.

Another hour or so later, and Theo had finally figured it out, leading to a race between the two around the rink resulting in some disgruntled older couples. They apologized, but were still kicked out.

“Whatever,” Liam yawned, as they walked back to their suite, “I beat you anyways.”

“Mature,” Theo replied. They were still holding hands, but Theo didn’t say anything about it, so neither did Liam.

Liam leaned against the door frame as Theo looked for his key. “You have a lot of snow in your hair.” He reached up and brushed it off as best as he could with one hand.

“Thanks,” Theo said dryly.

“Anytime,” Liam yawned.

“Seriously, old man? Quit yawning, it’s…” he looked at his phone.

“Midnight?”

“Yeah. Fine, you’re allowed to yawn.” Theo pushed the door open and led the way inside. “Do you want tea or coffee or something?”

“It’s midnight,” Liam reminded him, like it hadn’t been approximately _two seconds_.

“Yeah, but you’re always cold,” Theo shrugged. They peeled off their outerwear and stuck their snowy boots by the door.

Liam looked at him. “Are _you_ cold?”

Theo glared, so Liam took that as a yes. “Okay, I have a better idea. Go put your pajamas on.”

Theo looked at him curiously, but followed him into the bedroom. Putting on pajamas and brushing teeth with Theo was strangely domestic, but Liam also found it kind of nice. It was mostly done in silence with a lot of elbowing each other out of the way. When Liam got out of the bathroom first, he ran straight at the bed and leapt onto it.

“What are you doing?” Theo arrived in the doorway to the bathroom, arms crossed and eyebrows scrunched.

“Come here,” Liam demanded.

Theo shrugged and leapt up onto the bed so that they were both standing. Liam started to bounce on the spongey mattress, grinning at Theo.

“You are a child,” Theo hissed, but he started bouncing too, a similar grin spreading across his face.

They were both trying very hard not to laugh too loudly or hit their heads on the ceiling, but after one particularly high jump, Theo tackled him back onto the bed, startling a shout out of him.

“Ow,” Liam complained, pushing Theo off of him, “Are you trying to crush me to death?”

Theo wriggled around to pull the covers over them and leaned over to turn out the light. “Thanks, Liam,” he whispered.

Liam smiled into the dark. “Yeah. G’night Theo.”

“Night.”


	2. Theo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who has read/left kudos/bookmarked/commented - you are all so lovely! Writing this story makes me so happy and I didn't even think I shipped Thiam until I decided to write this. BTW, funny story, I have accidentally called Theo "Thiam" to my mom (who has no idea what Thiam is) like three times this week and she hasn't noticed yet...so that's good. 
> 
> Enjoy part 2!

Theo woke up to a soft light shining through the wall of a window that the room had. The sun was just up, and the snow sparkled with morning light, softened by new flakes drifting lazily down from the grey sky. He smiled into his pillow, feeling warmer and cozier than he had probably ever been in his life. He was pretty sure that the thread count on these sheets was like a billion. He hummed softly and pressed back into the firm warmth behind him. Something snuffled at his neck, and he froze. He was at the ski lodge, in bed with Liam, who…he pressed back a little more, feeling an arm tighten around his stomach, and an extra bone on the small of his back. _Shit._ He waited impatiently for Liam to lapse back into stillness, deeper into his REM cycle, and extracted himself from the awkward cuddle session. He had been half hard when he woke up, but knowing that Liam was hard too…not a good combination. He locked himself in the bathroom, took the coldest shower of his life, and slapped himself a few times. By the time he was making coffee and going over the case material, the morning in Liam’s arms had moved to the back of his mind. Mostly.

He heard a rustling in the bedroom, and then heard the shower start and the bathroom door close. Theo smiled and carried on looking through the files. A few minutes later, Liam shuffled into the kitchen, wearing just his sweatpants.

“I thought you were always cold,” Theo said, taking the time to watch the muscles in his back move as he looked through the cupboards.

Liam grunted.

“Coffee’s already made,” he told him, turning back to the papers in front of him.

“You didn’t get any food?” Liam asked.

“When would I have gotten food?” Theo rolled his eyes fondly. “We can get breakfast once you’re dressed.”

He listened to Liam making his coffee, smiling as he ran over one of the investigation reports again, but looked up, suddenly. “Liam!”

“Hm?” Liam appeared at his shoulder, blinking bleary eyed into his coffee.

“This isn’t just one person doing all of these…these acts of terrorism…there are at least two, maybe more.” He gestured to the report, flicking through a few more so that Liam could look at them, and then glanced up. Liam was leaning over his shoulder, their faces very close, his eyebrows furrowed in the most adorable way. God, Theo was pathetic.

“You could have something there,” Liam agreed slowly. “That would corroborate the Anuk ‘Ite theory. If Quinn and Aaron really _are_ the terrorists –“

“I don’t know,” Theo looked back at the reports. “I feel like we’re missing something…I feel…I feel like we’re always two steps behind…”

“You think it could be someone else using Quinn and Aaron to throw us off their trail?” Liam asked.

“I don’t know,” Theo shook his head. “I just don’t want to rule anything out yet.”

Liam pulled back and nodded. “Okay. Let me get dressed and then we can hit the slopes. Do you want to call Scott?”

“Not yet,” Theo shuffled everything back into the folder and stood to put it back in the safe, “we’ll let him know when we have something more concrete.”

When Liam was sufficiently bundled up and the papers were all safely locked away, they crossed the snow-covered ground to the main lodge. It was only lightly flurrying, but Liam still looked in awe. Theo had had a thing for Liam for far too long, but he had never wanted to kiss him as badly as he had yesterday when Liam grabbed his arm and pointed at the snowy sky.

They made their way through the cozy lodge to a café that opened out onto the snow in front of one of the main chair lifts. Liam ordered food and Theo found them a table. It was busy now, but he could only imagine how busy it would get when everyone came in for lunch.

“I got you orange juice cause you’re boring and only drink one coffee in the morning, and an egg sandwich on a bagel cause you eat too healthy,” Liam explained, setting the trey down on the table between them.

“Is there bacon on this?” Theo asked.

“Yes. That’s to show you how much I love you schnookums,” Liam winked.

Theo raised his eyebrows. He really wished that the first time Liam ever said ‘I love you’ to him, it didn’t have to be followed by the word ‘schnookums’, but such is life.

“Is it too late to send you back and get a new fiancé?” Theo asked. “Like Malia, maybe. I don’t think she would ever say ‘schnookums’. _Ever_.”

“No,” Liam agreed easily, “but she would definitely have killed you by now.”

“It hasn’t even been a day!”

“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure she hates you even more than Stiles does.”

“I didn’t do anything to either of them!” Theo argued.

“You framed Stiles and shot Malia,” Liam reminded him, “I’m surprised _anyone’s_ over it.”

“Are _you_ over it?” Theo asked, suddenly realizing that the answer meant a lot more to him than he thought.

Liam squinted. “I’m still deciding,” he said with a hint of a smile.

Theo grinned.

When they finished cleaning up their breakfast, they made their way to the ski and snowboard rental. Theo left Liam to his ski rentals, and was quickly set up with a snowboard, boots, and a helmet, which the talkative guy assured him they could hold on to until they had finished their stay.

Liam lumbered over to him, his heavy ski boots impeding his gait.

“Hey, babe,” Theo smiled at him, “ready to go?”

“Oh man,” said the guy who had been helping Theo, “A skier and a snowboarder. That’s some Romeo and Juliet shit right there.”

“Oh, is _that_ why I can hardly put up with you?” Liam teased, eyes sparkling.

“Hey, now. I have to put up with you snooty skiers too,” Theo grinned, glancing at the guy for backup.

“Oh, don’t look at me! I’m not getting in the middle of this!” He winked at Theo and whispered, “Snowboarders all the way.” Which earned him a fist bump.

Liam seemed mildly annoyed when they went outside and buckled into their skis and snowboard.

“Are you actually mad that I snowboard?” Theo wondered, unable to keep from laughing.

“No. Just – you just make friends with everyone.”

“Is that a problem?”

“No,” Liam said fiercely, looking frustrated and stomping his boot into his ski slightly harder than necessary.

Theo frowned and shuffled himself over so he was next to Liam. “What is it, then?”

“I don’t know,” Liam leaned on his poles, staring at the snow on the ground and then picked his head up to look at Theo. “You used to be a terrible person, and people even liked you _then_.”

“You think people don’t like you?” Theo frowned.

“I just think this comes way easier to you.”

Theo stared at him. “I mean…yeah. I have a lot of practice lying to people,” he hesitated, not wanting to say that it definitely helped when you wanted so badly for what you were doing and saying to be true. “But, if you don’t want to do it anymore, we can canvas the mountain separately, spend less time together. We can tell people we’re fighting. If you need space, we can make it work. You know there’s always an out, Liam, we talked about it.”

Liam just looked more frustrated. “No – I don’t want to fight with you. I don’t want an out. I just want…uhg,” he dropped his head heavily onto Theo’s shoulder and muttered something else, but Theo couldn’t really hear it and definitely didn’t process it, as Liam’s arms wound around him, and his face buried itself farther into his coat. It took a couple of seconds for him to remember to hug back, feeling like ever cell in his body had been sparked with electricity. It took a couple more seconds to remember to ask Liam what he had said he wanted.

Liam pulled away, hands curling around the handles of his poles again. “I just want to be better at this.”

Theo could still feel his heart racing. “You’re better than you think,” he assured him, “Are we good to get on a ski lift now?”

“Only if you’re ready for me to kick your ass all the way down the mountain.” Liam grinned and started polling towards the chair lift.

“Not sure that saying works as well as you think it does,” Theo called after him.

He caught up at the end of the doubles line, grinning and elbowing Liam in the side. It was fairly late in the morning, so the lines for the lift were long and crowded. By the time they made it to the front of their line, Liam had had enough time to get back on the topic of snowboards.

“You could always try it,” Theo suggested, as they were called forwards for the next chairlift.

They moved forward to the yellow line and waited for the chair to scoop them away.

“Yeah, no thanks,” Liam said as they sat down, “My butt hurts enough from last night.”

Theo snorted, but felt slightly guilty about basically tackling Liam into the ice the night before. The people on the lift with them all stared. It took Liam a minute to notice, but before he could try to dig himself out of the hole, the girls at the end of the chair recognized them.

“Liam and Theo, right?” Lori said, “This is my brother, Brett.”

Brett was sitting on Liam’s other side, and while he had seemed bored before, this seemed to draw his attention. Liam greeted him enthusiastically, introducing Theo as his fiancé, which hardly seemed to trouble Brett as much as it should have, but Liam was holding Theo’s hand again, so it was hard to complain too much. He settled for a smug glance at Brett and then turned almost all of his attention to his fake fiancé. Liam was talking to Sydney and Lori about which trails they had done, and which they were planning on doing next.

“We want to work our way up to Alpha into True Alpha later,” Brett put in, “There’s a lodge at the top of the mountain that we were going to have lunch at first, if you wanted to join us.”

This was said pretty much exclusively to Liam, but Theo answered. “We could probably try that, right babe? Better to do it now than when we’re sore and tired later, right?”

Liam turned to look at him. “Good idea, babe,” he leaned in a bit, and for a second, Theo panicked that Liam might kiss him, but then he brushed their noses together softly and pull away, and Theo…Theo’s heart felt like it was melting into a puddle of goop that formed Liam’s name. It was so simple but ridiculously romantic. He could practically hear Sydney and Lori sigh, but Brett didn’t seem particularly perturbed.

“So what should we do first, do you think?” Liam asked Theo, “Wolf Moon sounds good for a first run.”

“It’s a good warm-up,” Sydney agreed, “It’s a green, but it’s very long and scenic, which is nice. Gets a little crowded, though.”

“Sounds good to me,” Theo agreed.

“I wouldn’t mind doing that one again if you guys don’t mind me tagging along,” Brett said.

“Hey, we don’t own the mountain,” Theo told him.

A few minutes later, they got off the lift and their new friends showed them to the beginning of Wolf Moon.

“Race you to the bottom, Raeken,” Liam said, adjusting the poles in his hands.

“Sure, if you feel like losing,” Theo shrugged, and took off without another word.

Sydney was right, the trail was very beautiful and easy to snowboard, but Theo almost didn’t notice it in the rush of changing places with Liam as they sped down the side of the mountain. The other three kept up reasonably well on their skis, generally not passing either of them, but never falling so far behind that they were out of sight.

Liam sped past him again, just as Theo reached the bottom of the slope. He let out a wild cheer, thrusting his poles into the air. Theo grinned, and Brett sped past him, high-fiving Liam as he came to a stop next to them.

“Nice one, man,” he said, “That was some good skiing.”

“Thanks!” Liam grinned breathlessly

Theo kicked a foot out of its binding as they waited for Sydney and Lori to join them, which didn’t take long.

“Do you always go down the mountain that fast?” Lori asked, as they made their way towards the five person line for the chair lift.

“Mostly,” Theo said, “We can get pretty competitive sometimes.”

“Sometimes?” Liam asked.

“All the time?” Theo amended.

Liam leaned in to his side, smiling, “basically.”

“He broke my nose once,” Theo told their new friends, proudly.

“Once?” Liam said, offended.

“You didn’t actually break it the other times,” Theo insisted.

“ _Oh_ -kay,” Liam rolled his eyes.

“That’s not healthy,” Brett told Liam.

“It was before we really knew each other,” Liam shrugged.

By noon, they had skied the lower half of the mountain a couple of times. The lodge was at the summit, which required a second chair lift to get to. This one was a double, so the group paired off. Theo was worried for a minute that Brett would try to share a lift with Liam, but Liam stood close to Theo’s side the whole time, making it clear who he would be sitting with.

“You know Brett’s hitting on you, right?” Theo asked when they were gliding over the snowy trees in their small chair lift.

“I know,” Liam glanced at him, “Does that bother you?”

“No,” Theo lied, thinly. Liam raised his eyebrows, indicating that he saw right through him, “Are you interested?”

“Not really, no.”

Theo looked at him in surprise. “Why not? He’s hot.”

“Yeah, but – “ Liam stopped himself quickly and looked away, “I’m just not that interested. Besides, it would definitely blow our cover if I hooked up with him.”

Jealousy shot through Theo’s stomach at the thought of Liam and Brett. “That’s good,” he said, without really thinking, “I’m not sure I’m the type to share my fiancé.”

Liam glanced at him. “I wouldn’t want to share either,” he said quietly, “Or be shared.”

Theo wanted so badly for the nth time to kiss Liam, but settled for getting his feet ready to slide off of the chair and onto the firmly packed snow.

They took off their skis and snowboard, resting them outside the lodge while they waited for the others. Theo curled his arm around Liam’s shoulders and Liam put his around Theo’s waist, leaning into him.

“This place is really cool,” Lori told them when she joined them, “They have rooms upstairs where people can stay overnight. It gets cold, but it’s a really nice place to watch the stars.

“We should try that,” Liam said to Theo, “Sounds romantic.” He winked.

Theo grinned at him unguardedly. “Should I call ahead to ask for rose-petals on the bed?” he teased.

“I _do_ expect the best from my fiancé,” Liam replied, smiling. Theo’s grin grew impossibly wider – was Liam flirting with him?

“Well-“

“Hey, let’s go inside before it gets too crowded,” Brett interrupted.

Theo looked at him, in surprise. To say that he had forgotten about everything besides Liam was ridiculous, but to be perfectly honest, he had zoned out from the rest of the world for a second. When he looked back at Liam, he was surprised to see how close they were.

“Probably a good idea,” he agreed, dropping his arm from Liam’s shoulder to lace their fingers together.

It was already extremely crowded inside the lodge, and much warmer than it was outside. He felt Liam relax beside him in the warm air. They squeezed into to end of one of the long tables with their food and discussed the trails that they had already skied before turning to what they had heard about True Alpha.

“It’s supposed to be the hardest trail in the area,” Lori said, “We tried Alpha yesterday, which is a diamond, but there’s a blue called Omega, which shoots off of that and takes you all the way back to the base lodge. It’s pretty tricky for a blue in some spots, but obviously it’s way easier than True Alpha.”

“Where does True Alpha bring you to?” Theo asked.

“The Wild Hunt,” Brett said, somewhat ominously, “It’s that cabin village at the edge of the mountain. The trail that goes past is called Wild Storm. That’s a blue too, it eventually curves back around to the base lodge, but that way’s pretty rough.”

“That’s what we’re going to do?” Liam asked, eyebrows furrowing.

“We don’t have to,” Sydney said quickly, “Chimera starts up here too, and that’s a pretty easy blue. It was a little icy yesterday, though.”

Liam looked at Theo. “It’s up to you,” Theo said.

“Maybe we can just try Alpha first,” Liam suggested, “We can see how we feel when we get to Omega.”

Theo nodded in agreement and they stood to put away their food. He grabbed Liam by the arm as they were walking back and told him that he was going to run to the bathroom before they got back on the mountain. Liam nodded, while Sydney and Lori followed Theo, agreeing that it was probably a good idea. Theo had the fastest pee of his life and then made a detour to the check-in desk for the hotel part of the lodge on his way back.

“Do you have any openings here tonight?” he asked quickly.

“I’m sorry, sir, we’re all booked,” the man said without even looking at his computer.

“What about tomorrow?”

“We are booked for the next week and a half,” the man informed him apologetically.

“The next _week and a half?_ Wow. Are you sure there’s absolutely nothing?”

“Yes, sir. If you give me a name, room number, and phone number, I can call and let you know if anything comes up, but that’s the best that I can offer.”

Theo provided those things and then ran into Sydney and Lori on the way back from the bathroom. “It’s a surprise for Liam,” he told their questioning looks, “Keep it a secret?”

“Of course!” Sydney said, as Lori nodded.

When they got outside, they found Liam and Brett standing fairly far apart, Liam texting with an annoyed look on his face, and Brett people-watching, looking entirely carefree.

“Okay?” Theo asked, as he strapped his board on next to Liam.

“Texting Mason,” Liam grunted, “You were in the bathroom for a long time.”

“Miss me?” Theo smiles lightly.

Liam glanced past him at Brett, who was not looking their way for once. “Maybe a little.”

“Seriously, what happened?” Theo straightened up, concerned.

“I’ll tell you later,” Liam nudged him with his shoulder, “Let’s go.”

They ended up bailing on True Alpha for the day, after struggling down the steep and icy Alpha to the inviting-looking Omega. A few runs later, and Liam and Theo parted ways with the rest of the group to warm up before their sleigh ride. When they got back to the suite, Liam stripped himself of his snow gear and outer layers and huddled in their giant bed under the covers. Theo started a pot of tea and then went to stand in the doorway of his bedroom.

“What are you doing back in bed?” he asked.

“It’s really warm in here,” Liam’s face appeared above the covers, his nose red, “You should try it sometime.”

_It’s not an invitation_ , Theo reminded himself, shaking his head. “Do you want tea?” he asked.

“Only if you bring it in here.”

_Not an invitation_.

“You realize we only have like an hour before our sleigh ride, right?” he called over his shoulder as he went back into the kitchen. The only response he got was the sound of Liam violently drawing the covers up over his head again.

A few minutes later, Theo returned to the doorway of the bedroom, holding two cups of tea. “You can’t drink this under the covers,” he told Liam.

Liam’s head reappeared over the blanket. “Come in here and try to tell me that,” he challenged. His hair was slightly messy from the covers, and his face was slightly ruddy from the cold wind, and he was inviting Theo into bed in the middle of the day.

He moved to the side of the bed and set one of the mugs on the bedside table on Liam’s side, sipping out of the other one. “Just don’t spill, okay?” he relented.

He was turning to go back into the sitting area, when Liam said, “Come under the covers.”

He nearly gave himself whiplash, turning to see Liam sitting up a little higher under the covers, mug in hand. “Seriously?”

“If you want,” Liam shrugged, trying to look casual.

Theo tried to think about it, but his feet were already taking him back to his side of the bed. He paused, taking another sip of his tea for something to do, when Liam pulled the covers part of the way back.

“Hurry up,” he said, “You’re letting the cold air in.”

Theo set his cup down quickly and slid into the bed, pulling the covers up to his chin and looking at Liam. They had a fair bit of space between them, and more than one layer of clothing each, but it was beautifully intimate and Theo couldn’t look away from Liam.

“Better?” Liam asked.

Theo nodded slowly, and stuck out his feet until they were resting on Liam’s shins.

“Shit!” Liam leapt backwards as Theo laughed. “That’s not funny! Why are your feet ice cubes?”

“Because I only wore one pair of socks, like a normal person does,” Theo teased, scooting in to stick his toes on Liam’s legs again.

Liam scowled adorably, but didn’t move this time. Theo sighed and reached over to drink more of his tea. “This was a good idea,” he admitted, as he felt the heat of the blankets and Liam’s body start to seep back into his skin.

“I know,” Liam said brightly.

After a few minutes of silence, Theo spoke again. “Do you want to tell me what happened with Brett?” he asked.

“What? How do you know something happened with Brett?”

“Because he was all over you and then he wasn’t,” Theo said, watching him carefully.

“He asked me to ditch you guys and hang out with him,” Liam admitted.

“What did you say?”

“That I came here with my fiancé and the only person I was leaving with was my fiancé.”

Theo smiled despite himself.

“But he didn’t seem to think we were all that serious.”

“You didn’t threaten to break his nose, did you?” Theo snorted.

“No, but I punched him in the throat when he tried to kiss me,” Liam glanced away.

“Hey,” Theo said quickly, taking Liam’s wrist lightly, pulling his attention back to him, “It’s a good move.”

Liam looked concerned, and lost in thought still, so Theo pulled lightly on his wrist, Liam following easily until he was wrapped in Theo’s arms. He seemed a little surprised, but sunk into Theo’s embrace, head tucked under Theo’s chin, with his hands balled into loose fists between their chests.

“Lydia taught me that one,” Liam mumbled.

“Of course she did,” Theo snorted.

They lay like that for a long time, Theo relishing in the fact that Liam was letting him comfort him, and not even for the first time that day. Eventually, Liam’s breathing started to even out, and the sun dipped low in the sky. Theo’s eyes blinked open without him really ever being aware of having fallen asleep, and he released Liam, rolling over to look at the time. He swore under his breath and rolled back over to shake Liam awake.

“What?” he asked groggily.

“Do you still want to go on the sleigh ride?” Theo asked softly, “Cause it’s in five minutes if you still want to go.”

Liam groaned sleepily and then looked out the window over Theo’s shoulder. “It’s snowing again!” He exclaimed, sitting up faster than Theo thought he would have been capable of.

Theo turned over to see fat snowflakes drifting lazily through the gray sky. “Should I take that as a yes?” he asked, turning back to Liam.

“Yes, definitely,” Liam sprang out of bed pulling on his extra socks and sweatshirt and his scarf. He turned with one arm in his coat, and looked at Theo, who was still lounging in bed, watching him with a contented smile. “Unless you don’t want to go…”

“I’ll go anywhere you go,” Theo smiled easily, pulling himself lethargically out of bed.

“You can have an opinion, you know,” Liam said, pulling his coat the rest of the way on.

“That _is_ my opinion,” Theo told him, grabbing his coat and hat and moving towards his boots.

“At least put another pair of socks on, then, ice toes,” Liam said, throwing a balled-up pair of thick wool socks at his head.

Theo caught them easily and unrolled them, saying, “Not your best insult, babe.”

They made it to the barn that the sleigh rides left from in the nick of time. There were a number of massive Clydesdales, attached to sleighs of varying sizes. One sleigh, carrying about ten people was just pulling away as they walked up.

“The group sleigh just pulled away,” a young woman told them, holding the reins of two of the giant horses, “We have a number of couples’ sleighs, though. Is that what you were looking for?”

Theo nodded, and soon they were being offered complimentary hot chocolate and helped onto the sleigh, which the woman jumped into the front of, still holding the reins.

He watched Liam look around in wonder at the falling snowflakes and the large horses plowing their way through the snow. Liam started up a conversation with the driver about the horses, leaning into Theo for warmth. Theo was happy to listen to them, watching the scenery and mostly Liam as they were pulled along through the night. It seemed unreal to get to fall asleep with Liam in his arms and then wake up just to do something like this with him. It _was_ actually unreal, he supposed, but when it came to Liam, he would take what he could get. 

After a while, Liam lapsed back into contemplative silence, shivering into Theo’s side. Theo wrapped an arm around him. “Do you want my coat?” he asked.

Liam frowned at him in confusion. “ _You_ need your coat,” he said.

Theo shrugged.

“No, you need your coat. Pretending you’re not cold doesn’t actually make you not cold, you know that, right?” Liam insisted.

“There’s a blanket under the seat,” their driver said, sounding amused.

Theo reached under and grabbed the fleece blanket, which he handed to Liam. Liam spread it out over both of them and huddled closer into Theo.

“You can bundle up by yourself,” Theo suggested, hesitantly, “It might be warmer.”

“I’m using you for your body heat, Raeken, let me be,” Liam said, tipping his head back to watch the sky.

Theo looked at him and then tipped his head back too, the sky seeming vaster than ever.


	3. Liam

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all of the sweet comments! They make my day every time I read them :)  
> There's a little bit of plot in this chapter, but it's pretty well balanced by the fluffiest fluff ever!  
> Enjoy!

It was a little weird how comfortable Liam was beginning to feel around Theo. He wasn’t sure he would necessarily call what they did cuddling. Mason did, but he was witnessing Liam’s Theo Spiral through texts and snapchats, so really, what did he know? Liam was pretty sure he had fallen asleep wrapped up in Theo’s arms earlier, and now he was tucked closely into his side in a dim booth at dinner, across from two maybe suspected terrorists. Theo’s thumb was rubbing gently back and forth over his arm and Liam wasn’t yelling at him. In fact, staring in the faces of the two maybe-suspected-terrorists, Liam kind of felt safer than he ever had in his life. He glanced at Theo, who was making up some story about how they met entirely off the top of his head and smiled. Theo seemed to feel his gaze or maybe just have a sixth sense especially for Liam, because he looked back at him with a small smile, cutting himself off in the middle of his sentence.

“What?” he asked, smile still playing around his lips.

“Nothing,” Liam said. He couldn’t help but smile back. “I like when you tell this story.”

Theo leaned towards him and Liam could swear his heart was beating so hard and so fast it was about to explode. Was Theo going to kiss him? He weirdly felt like he wouldn’t mind if he did. They had decided it would be better not to kiss if they could get away with it – that was pretty easy to put off to a dislike of PDA, but…did Liam _want_ Theo to kiss him?

It didn’t really matter, because Theo simply rubbed their noses together, imitating what Liam had done earlier that day. Liam told himself steadfastly that he was not disappointed. Theo hovered for a minute before pulling away, smiling the whole time. Liam felt himself smiling in response.

“What was that for?” Liam whispered.

“Nothing,” Theo said, seemingly unable to stop smiling , “I just like you.”

Liam felt his breath catch. He was surprised that Theo didn’t notice, considering how close they were. “I kinda like you too,” Liam admitted.

Theo grinned blindingly, but then cleared his throat and turned back to Aaron and Quinn. “Anyways,” he picked up where he had left off, “He apologized, and we’ve been together ever since.”

“You _wish_ that’s how it went,” Liam rolled his eyes, trying to get his heartrate back to a normal level.

“I thought you said you like how he tells the story,” Aaron said, smiling.

“I do, but he always gets the end wrong,” Liam said, glancing at Theo with a wry smile.

“What do _you_ say happened, then?” Quinn asked.

“Theo was the one who needed to apologize, but obviously he was too stubborn, so I had to go over and stand outside his apartment in the rain for like 15 minutes waiting for him to get home. When he finally did, I started to apologize because clearly he wasn’t going to, but he cut me off and then we kissed and made up,” Liam explained.

Theo shook his head, smiling, but pulled Liam closer and asked, “So what about you two? How did you meet?”

Dinner was surprisingly calm and pleasant. Aaron and Quinn seemed perfectly ordinary, even nice, which Liam commented to Theo later as they got ready for bed.

“I don’t know, I can’t really see them as terrorists,” Liam continued, after spitting his toothpaste in the sink. Theo elbowed him out of the way and spat his toothpaste in the sink too.

“Some people are just really good at lying,” Theo shrugged, “Go get in bed, I’ll be in in a sec.”

“What if it’s somebody else we met, though?” Liam continued. “Those guys from the hot tub. Or even Sydney and Lori and Brett?”

“Liam. I have to pee. Go get in bed. I’ll be there in a second, I promise.”

Liam made a face at the closed bathroom door, but crawled into bed anyways. He could hear Theo banging around in the bathroom and then the clear sound of piss hitting water. He rolled onto his side, taking his phone off of the nightstand and opening his text thread with Mason.

_Hey, remember how you asked me if I liked him?_

He thought for a second before pressing send. Mason would know who he was talking about and Liam couldn’t really bring himself to write Theo’s name in that sentence.

_Yes…_

_Do you?_

Liam thought about it for a minute.

_idk_

_Maybe?_

Liam bit his lip and glanced at the door. He could hear Theo washing his hands.

_Liaaaammmm. Bro._

_Are you just figuring this out now?_

_You’ve been flirting with him since day 1_

Liam replied quickly.

_No I haven’t_

_Asshole._

The water shut off and the bathroom door opened. Liam locked his phone despite a new message from Mason, and rolled over again to watch Theo slip under the covers and turn out the light.

“Hey,” he whispered.

Theo smiled. “Hey,” he whispered back. Liam could smell the mint toothpaste still on his breath, see his face set in shadows.

Liam smiled back, until he felt an icy set of toes on his shins. “Asshole!” he hissed while Theo smirked, “Go put some socks on.”

“Why would I do that when I can warm my feet up on you?” Theo asked innocently.

“I’m serious,” Liam insisted. “I will kick you in the shin if you don’t put socks on.”

Theo grumbled indistinguishably, but rolled out of bed and returned a minute or two later with warmer, softer feet. “Better?” he asked.

“Much,” Liam grinned.

Theo scooted a little closer resting one hand in the space between them, his other arm under his head. Liam watched him, mind whirring. Crap. He totally liked Theo. And was also more confused than he had ever been in his life. Even if he wanted to, how was he supposed to flirt with Theo when they were pretending to flirt all the time because they were fake fiancés?

Theo seemed to notice him frowning because he pulled his hand back a little and asked, “You okay?”

“What? Yeah…I’m just…thinking,” Liam said lamely.

“About the case?” Theo asked.

Liam closed his eyes for a second. “Sort of,” he said, for lack of less embarrassing answers.

“Do you think we should call Scott?”

Liam opened his eyes. Theo may play by the rules more often than not these days, but he still didn’t like to take orders from Scott.

“Nah,” Liam sighed, “I don’t know where we’d start. It’s just…a lot.”

“Helps to sleep on it,” Theo suggested.

Liam screwed up his courage, or maybe his insanity, and reached out to take Theo’s hand. Theo looked surprised but pleased, and smiled through the dark at him. Every once in a while, Liam would get a fleeting feeling like Theo was about to kiss him, and he felt that feeling now. Theo did nothing, however, but pull him a little closer and wrap an arm around him.

“G’night Liam,” he said, watching him through sleepy eyes.

“Night,” Liam replied, feeling himself already starting to drift off, safe and cozy. He could have sworn he felt the ghost of Theo’s lips over his forehead before sleep overtook him.

He woke up sprawled across Theo’s chest. Theo was awake, phone limply in hand, but his eyes were on Liam. “Morning, sleeping beauty,” he teased with a small smile. He had one arm curved around him, hand resting on Liam’s back, just under his shoulder blades.

Liam groaned into his chest before realizing what he was doing. He looked up quickly at Theo, who was a little flushed, feeling himself blushing hard. “You could have just pushed me back over to my side,” he said, self-consciously.

“You needed to sleep,” Theo said simply. Liam could feel his thumb rubbing back and forth, probably subconsciously, burning through the back of his t-shirt. He wanted to bury his head in Theo’s chest again and just lay there, but he forced himself to sit up, pulling reluctantly out of Theo’s arm.

“Uh, thanks,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “So what are we doing today?”

“Well,” Theo stretched his arms over his head, and Liam found himself struggling between staring at his muscles and feeling bad that he had probably caused his arm to fall asleep, “I think we’ve got a pretty good lay of the land by now, but we need to buckle down on the people.”

“You’re not sure about Quinn and Aaron,” Liam inferred.

“I don’t think we should rule anyone out,” Theo agreed, “Just because they’re tied to multiple past incidents doesn’t mean they were responsible for them. Correlation verses causation, right?”

“Totally, Professor Raeken,” Liam rolled his eyes. Theo grinned up at him. “So how do we ‘buckle down’ on which people? We don’t know what the people we _do_ know are doing today. And how are we going to rule anyone out?”

“I was texting Stiles and Mason earlier, and they’re cross-referencing all of the guests with the previous incidents. Stiles said they’ll have a short-list for us by this afternoon, and Mason says you need to text him back,” Theo smirked at the last part, “Do I want to ask?”

“No,” Liam said quickly, blushing. “What time is it now?”

Theo looked at the clock on the bedside table. “Nine. I thought we could get breakfast and the do some snowboarding… _and skiing_ ,” he rolled his eyes, with a fond smile on his lips, “But I’m going to shower first.”

Liam looked at him. “Okay.”

Theo didn’t move immediately, but after a minute he nodded and rolled off the bed, making his way into the bathroom. Liam watched him, and then grabbed his phone when Theo closed the door and rolled out of bed and into the kitchen. He checked his phone as he started the coffee maker.

_You have and he flirts with you too_

_It’s disgusting_

_Liam?_

_Dude, don’t back out now!_

_Please? I have $25 on the two of you_

_And also it would make you happy. Probably._

_Liam?_

_Oh, you’re asleep. Nvm_

Liam snorted and leaned against the counter while the coffee maker gurgled behind him.

_1 no he doesn’t 2 I said *maybe*_

_3 wtf why do you have a bet???_

_Also you need to not do Stiles hours. Not healthy_

Mason texted him back almost immediately.

_Dude yes he does. Take your time_

_But, you know, not that long_

_Stiles thinks you will kill T by the end of mission_

_He also thinks you will die an old maid_

_He also drinks shots of espresso at like 10pm_

_And is my superior so I have 2 stay up w him_

Liam poured his coffee before bothering to text back.

_Ok I’m done talking abt this_

_I’ll call you later. Stiles is insane btw_

_And don’t tell Theo to tell me to check my phone_

Mason sent another eggplant emoji and Liam heard the shower shut off. A few minutes later, Theo walked into the kitchen in sweatpants and a t-shirt that was still slightly damp and clinging to his muscular frame.

“Hey,” he said, sidling up next to Liam, “Coffee?”

“What do you think?” Liam rolled his eyes. He could feel the steam radiating off of Theo’s body and wanted nothing more than to cuddle into him and absorb that all for himself. He took a scalding sip of his coffee instead, choking on his burnt tongue.

“Smooth,” Theo said, moving in to take the mug out of his hands and not moving away. “You should probably let it cool down first.”

“Yeah,” Liam practically gasped. They were very close. “You know, I should probably take a shower…”

“Okay,” Theo smiled with one corner of his mouth. An almost-there smile that Liam was very familiar with by now. Neither of them moved.

“Okay, I’m going.” Liam insisted. “Don’t drink all of the coffee.”

Theo grinned and sipped lightly from Liam’s mug.

“Asshole.” Liam meant it to be much more rude than it came out being. He finally managed to pull himself away from Theo and go into the bathroom without looking back at him. More than once.

They had breakfast at the lodge again before pulling on all of their layers and lining up for the main chairlift. This time they didn’t see anyone they recognized, so they sat at the end, Theo extending his arm along the back of the chair, curling it around Liam’s shoulders as they talked quietly, Liam unconsciously leaning into his side.

“What do you think?” Theo asked as they got off of the lift. “Start with Wolf Moon?”

“It looks pretty crowded,” Liam frowned, “want to pole over to Beta? I heard it’s pretty and quiet.”

“From who?” Theo asked, “We’ve been right next to each other since the minute we got here.”

Liam thought about that for a second. Theo was right, but Liam honestly hadn’t even thought about it. Since when was he totally unbothered by spending literally _all_ of his time with Theo? Then again, every time Theo had left him alone on this trip, Liam had wanted him to come back almost immediately. He had thought that it was just because Theo was so good at lying that Liam lied much better when he had Theo to work off of, but…all morning yesterday when Brett had been trying to get his attention, Liam had wanted to stick to Theo like glue. He had almost followed him to the bathroom, but decided that that was maybe too clingy for a fake fiancé…

“Liam?”

“Huh?” He snapped out of his thoughts, realizing that he had just been staring at Theo, probably with a very strange expression on his face. “Oh, I was eavesdropping on the people next to us on the lift.”

Theo shook his head, smiling his swoon-worthy little half-smile. Swoon-worthy? Liam rolled his eyes at himself. “Alright,” Theo said, “Let’s do Beta.”

Liam grinned at him and they started the slow, laborious way sideways across the mountain.

“Fuck,” Liam breathed, sitting down at the top of a small hill, “No wonder nobody comes over to this trail. This is _not_ worth it.”

Theo stood over him smirking, one foot out of the binding on his snowboard. “And this is why snowboarding’s better,” he said.

“Don’t gloat,” Liam scowled, throwing a handful of snow at him.

“It’s not like you don’t have any arm muscles,” Theo said, eyes running over Liam, causing him to blush. They had worked out together, which usually devolved into vicious competitions, but Theo had never admitted that Liam could give him a fair run for his money. He was drawn out of this line of thought when a ball of snow hit him in the face. He gaped up at Theo, who was packing another snowball, with that obnoxiously hot smirk, which Liam wasn’t even going to think about because he was too busy packing his own snowball.

Another one hit him in the shoulder and he ducked down, packing the snow together to throw at Theo’s back as he bent down to pull his other foot out of the binding. He stuck his snowboard violently in the snow at the side of the trail, saying, “Oh, it is _on_ , Dunbar!”

Liam stomped his feet out of the bindings on his skis and dove off of the side of the trail, gathering another snowball, but not before Theo narrowly missed his head. He jumped up to chase Theo to the other side of the trail, getting him right in the back of the neck. Theo shouted a curse and then turned around and tackled Liam into the snow, leaving their faces inches apart. Liam was breathing hard, still laughing, and Theo was grinning, cheeks and nose pink. His eyes flickered down to Liam’s lips – there was no mistaking it this time. There was nobody around and Liam was convinced that Theo was going to kiss him. He felt his breath quicken and his eyes start to drift closed as Theo’s face hovered closer and closer. Suddenly, his face was burning cold. He gasped, eyes flying open, and shook the snow off of his face. He grabbed a handful of snow without looking and forcibly shoved it down the back of his coat.

Theo gasped and rolled off of Liam. “Asshole. That went down my shirt!”

“You got me in the face – twice!” Liam sat up. A family with small children was the only thing stopping him from tackling Theo. Instead, they both got up and went back to their respective skis and snowboard.

“Why don’t you just carry them?” Theo asked, sliding over to him, one foot back in his binding.

“I can do it,” Liam insisted, “The next part’s downhill anyways.”

Theo looked ahead. “Not for a bit,” he said, “I can pull you, if you want?”

Liam considered, and then decided that he definitely deserved it. “Okay,” he held one of his poles out for Theo to grab the end of, “Onwards.”

Theo rolled his eyes fondly, but started ahead, pulling Liam along behind him. Liam felt a little bad after a while, but Theo never once complained, even looking questioningly over his shoulder at him once they had ridden out the momentum from the hill, but Liam shook his head and continued poling to the top of Beta.

“Looks nice,” Theo said, pushing his other foot into the binding. From what they could see of the trail, it was narrow and curving, winding through the snowy woods.

“Yeah,” Liam agreed, “Ready?”

“What, you’re not going to jump the gun this time?” Theo asked.

“We don’t have to race every time, Raeken,” Liam sniffed, and then smiled over his shoulder, “Try to keep up.”

With very few other people on the trails, and without trying to get down the mountain in record time, Liam and Theo wove in and out of each other’s paths seamlessly, following each other onto little side paths that went through the trees and looking over their shoulders to smile at each other every once in a while. About halfway down, the trail curved onto the side of the mountain away from the lodge and the rest of the trails and out of the trees. Liam swung to a stop and Theo pulled up alongside him. The view was spectacular: other mountains rose against the blue-grey sky and the side of the mountain and the forest below them were covered in white. A covered bridge crossed a stream a little ways below them, and back towards the main lodge, smoke was furling out of the chimney of a small cabin.

Theo leaned his forearms on the wooden fence that blocked off the steep drop of the side of the mountain. He looked at Liam. “Beautiful,” he said, smiling slightly before looking back out at the view. “Do you think the trail goes across that bridge?”

“Only one way to find out,” Liam shrugged, watching Theo, who had an amazingly content expression on his face. “Happy?” he asked, after only a moment’s hesitation.

Theo hummed. “Yeah,” he looked sideways at Liam, “This is pretty great.”

Liam wanted to ask which part, but he managed to restrain himself. Another older couple came gliding down the trail, and slid to an easy stop next to Liam, looking very energized. Liam curled his hands around the grips on his poles again, preparing to continue down the mountain, and took another look at the view. He looked back at Theo to ask if he was ready to go, only to find that Theo was watching him with that same beautifully contented expression. Liam felt like his heart was sighing.

“Did you want a picture together, honey?” one of the women asked.

Liam opened his mouth to decline, but Theo was already fishing his phone out of his pocket. “Would you mind?” he asked politely, “This is the perfect backdrop.” He handed her the phone and slid in to Liam’s side, wrapping an arm around his waist. Liam did the same, leaning into Theo, which seemed to be quickly becoming a habit. Theo pulled him close until he was angled into his side, Liam allowed himself to grin, and then he felt Theo’s forehead on his temple. He faintly heard the lady comment on how cute the picture was, before Theo’s lips pressed to his cheek and he drew away to retrieve his phone. Liam stared after him.

“We’re engaged,” he heard Theo clarifying in response to the other woman’s answer. He asked if they wanted a picture, and they declined, so Theo returned to his side. “Ready to keep going, babe?” he asked.

Liam snapped out of it and smiled his best smile. “Yeah! Let’s go!”

It was mostly quiet on their way down the mountain. They passed across the covered bridge, grinning at each other, and followed the trail to the cabin, which was actually a small restaurant.

“Lunch?” Liam suggested. Theo nodded and they put their skis and snowboard in the ski rack by the steps into the cabin.

It was a small restaurant, warm and cozy, with a number of people, but not nearly as busy as either of the lodges. Liam and Theo found a table near the fireplace and ordered soup and sandwiches.

“Are you okay?” Theo asked, after their food had been delivered, “I kind of sprung that on you earlier.”

“What?”

“Kissing you,” Theo glanced up at him and then back down to his plate. Liam’s heart raced at the words.

“No,” Liam said quickly. Theo looked up sharply. “I mean yeah, no I don’t mind. It’s fine. Kissing me.” He could feel himself blushing and wanted very badly to bang his head against the table, but couldn’t think of a subtle way to do it.

He looked at Theo, who was smiling. “Good,” he said, and went back to his soup.

Theo’s phone rang as they were paying for their food, or, rather, charging it to their room. “Stiles,” he told Liam, “We should probably go outside.”

Liam nodded and they made their way to a pair of Adirondack chairs on the porch. “Hey, Stiles,” Theo said, “Can I put you on speaker?” Liam was surprised that he seemed to wait for an answer before doing so.

“We’ve narrowed it down to a handful of people,” Stiles jumped in right away, “I talked them into – okay, _yes_ – Lydia talked them into giving you a room tonight. Are you happy? Good, I’m so glad. _Anyways_ , you have that room at the summit tonight, and everybody on that list has dinner and room reservations there, which should give you time to vet them all out.”

“What room?” Liam asked.

“At the summit lodge?” Stiles butted in before Theo could say anything. “You didn’t tell Liam?”

“It was going to be a surprise,” Theo said, looking slightly embarrassed, which Liam wasn’t sure he had ever seen. _Ever_.

“ _Oh my god_. This is an official operation! You can’t keep secrets! _What_ romance, Lydia? They’re not together!” Liam and Theo deliberately did not look at each other. “No, they’re – I can’t do this with you right now.” Stiles sounded as exasperated and fond as he always did when he talked to Lydia. Liam glanced at Theo, to find him looking back, and then quickly looked away again. “Okay, look, I’ll text you the list, but there’s no service and no internet up there. If you need anything, you have to call from the landline…also, you have to call to confirm the reservation an hour before dinner, which is at 6:30. Any questions, or can I go enjoy my Saturday?”

“No, we’re good,” Theo said, “Thanks, Stiles.”

“No problem dickhead. Be strong, Liam.” And with that he hung up.

“You were trying to book a room at the summit lodge?” Liam asked.

“Yeah,” Theo glanced at him, “I thought it would be…nice…”

“It sounds nice,” Liam smiled.

“It was filled up for the next two weeks,” Theo admitted, “I don’t know how Lydia convinced them to open up multiple rooms.”

“Cause she’s Lydia?” Liam shrugged. “So are we just going to ski until then?”

“If you want,” Theo shrugged.

“You’re allowed to have an opinion, you know,” Liam smiled wryly.

“I want to go where you want to go,” Theo smiled back, “That’s my opinion.”

“We better get going then,” Liam said, “Lots of trails to ski before dinner.”

They went back to their room to pack an overnight bag before dinner and then walked to the other side of the mountain to take the gondola lift straight to the summit lodge. Liam made no pretense about walking closer to Theo for warmth now. He found himself not minding so much, and he got the feeling that Theo didn’t really mind either. The ride up was a little bit rowdy, as they found themselves sharing the lift with both their neighbors, Sydney, Lori, and Brett, and Nolan and Gabe from the hot tub and their friends, Jiang and Tierney, all of whom had received special invitations to spend a night at the summit for free. A scowling, somewhat older man grunted that his name was Halwyn, but mostly ignored their shenanigans.

At the summit lodge, they all broke apart to find their rooms before dinner. Liam and Theo stood last in line at the desk to get their room keys, behind Halwyn, who seemed to be on his own. If the base lodge was cabin chic, Liam thought, the summit lodge was elegantly rustic. It was the sort of place where everything was made from wood, but the sheets were Egyptian cotton and you drank nothing but champagne.

“This is fancy,” Liam whispered to Theo, as they made their way up a large, curving staircase, room key in hand (which, by the way, was an actual brass _key_ ).

Theo squeezed his hand and smiled at him. “Only the best for my fiancé, right?”

Liam grinned back, looking around in interest as they made their way down a quiet hallway to their room, where Theo unlocked the door and then turned to Liam with his back to it. “Close your eyes,” he said.

“What, why?” Liam frowned.

“I want it to be a surprise.”

“You don’t know what it looks like either,” Liam pointed out.

“Liam, just close your eyes,” Theo begged, “Please?”

“Never in my life,” Liam grinned, closing his eyes, “Did I think I would ever hear Theo Raeken say the word _please_.”

He heard the door open and felt a pair of hands slip over his eyes, Theo warm at his back. He was walked forward a bit, and he heard the door close carefully behind them, before Theo took his hands away and said, “Open.”

Liam opened his eyes and gasped. The room was small with an electric, but very realistic-looking fireplace, a literal bear-skin rug, and a small, but elegant carved wooden table. A door to one side led to a tiny bathroom with tile floor and a clawfoot bathtub, but no shower-head, semi-sheer white curtains drawn across the small window. But the main point of the room, what caught Liam’s eye above everything else, was the bed, nestled into a nook with no windows to the sides, but a skylight that spread entirely over the top and a third of the way down the walls, slanted so that they could watch the snow falling directly down from the sky and then slip down the glass. The bed itself had a number of cushiony-looking pillows and a huge white down comforter, two or three throws in neutral cabin-y shades tossed artfully on top. And on top of all of that was a trail of red rose petals and a bucket with a bottle of champagne. It was the most romantic thing that Liam had ever seen, and probably ever would see again.

“Uh, I think they went a little overboard,” Theo said awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. “I mean, you said rose petals, but I swear I didn’t ask for the champagne…”

Liam looked at him and burst out laughing. Theo looked horrified, but Liam couldn’t rein it in.

“It’s not…” he waved his hand around, laughing, “…just…you actually…you actually…rose petals!”

After a minute, Theo seemed to get that Liam was laughing _with_ him, not _at_ him, and a smile broke onto his face. “Thought you might like that,” he said, suddenly confident again. “Shall we have champagne before dinner?” He crossed over to the bed, smile cocky.

“Why yes, my lord,” Liam grinned, falling dramatically onto the bed, nearly upsetting the bucket of champagne, which Theo quickly pulled to safety, “You _do_ know how to woo a man.” He fluttered his eyelashes as obnoxiously as he could.

Theo ripped the foil off of the top and then uncorked the bottle with a pop. He knelt on one knee before the bed, presenting the bottle to Liam, who had pulled himself up onto his elbows. “I present thee with this nectar that you may receive it and with it my heart.” Theo put a hand soppily over his heart.

“You are such a dork,” Liam grinned, “Aren’t there any glasses?”

Theo looked around and then shrugged. “I guess we’re doing this the classy way.”

Liam rolled his eyes and grabbed the bottle, taking a sip as he slid under the covers. “Come here,” he demanded, holding the bottle out to Theo, “We’re doing this the Theo and Liam way. The Thiam way.”

Theo laughed, but crawled under the covers with him, taking a swig of the champagne. “Classy,” he sighed, leaning his head back against the wall to look up at the snowy sky.

Liam, giving up all pretense, snuggled closer to him. Theo looked down in surprise. Liam watched his eyes darken as he took the bottle from him. “Thiam,” he corrected. He waited for Theo to roll his eyes, but instead, they darted down to Liam’s lips and then back up to his eyes, searching. Liam felt himself pulling closer, like a magnet, like it was a natural force pulling them towards each other, something that couldn’t be stopped. Liam watched Theo’s eyes drift closed in anticipation, and let his own fall closed as well. There would be no snowball to the face this time. Their lips had barely touched, or had maybe even been a hair’s breadth away, when a series of loud bells, like jingle bells, sounded, making them jerk apart.

“I guess that means dinner’s ready,” Theo said, unsteadily.

Liam watched him climb off the bed and wondered what would have happened if they had actually kissed. Then he wondered: what happens now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry! That was kind of mean...at least they know they like each other now - or do they? (Cause let's be real, these boys are a little oblivious)  
> PS - let me know if the formatting for the text messages is hard to read. I couldn't quite figure out how I wanted to do that...


	4. Theo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plot happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lovely readers! We are so close to the end! I have the "epilogue" written, but I'm going to post it tomorrow so that you can digest this chapter before finishing this fic. I apologize in advance - this chapter is a lot of plot and a lot less fluff than I would like, but it had to be done. Hopefully you'll still enjoy it! Thank you so much for all of your support throughout this whole thing - I actually think this is the first fic I've ever finished, so, seriously. Thank you.   
> I'll save all of the other gooey notes about how much I appreciate you guys and what I want to do next for the actual last chapter, but for now:  
> Enjoy!

Theo could hardly breathe. He wasn’t sure what had just happened back in their room, but something between them had changed drastically. They walked down to dinner in silence, not close together, but not actively avoiding each other either. It felt like they were on a precipice, the very peak of a towering mountain, totally vulnerable to the smallest breeze. He glanced at Liam as they found themselves back in the main hall. He was frowning at his phone, but then looked up at Theo, who felt himself blush.

“No service,” Liam shrugged awkwardly, and tucked his phone away, averting his eyes.

“Liam,” Theo tried uneasily, not missing how quickly Liam’s gaze snapped back to him. His breath caught. _God_ , he had almost kissed Liam. It had been so incredibly close, but…Liam had almost kissed him back…

“Yeah?” Liam’s voice sounded ever so slightly higher than usual.

Theo took a deep breath. “I think we should-“

“Into the dining room, gentlemen,” A man in the lodge’s signature shirt appeared out of one of the doorways. The name embroidered on the shirt read _Kevin_. “Dinner is about to be served.” Theo nodded, glancing at Liam to see if he would be okay with continuing the conversation over dinner, but he was already following Kevin. _Shit,_ he thought, _maybe he’s mad at me…what if he didn’t want to –_

“Theo?” Liam was looking over his shoulder, clearly wondering why he was still standing in the hall.

Theo forced a smile and followed him into the dining room. All of the tables had been pushed together to form one long, rectangular table, which everyone was sitting around. He took a seat between Liam and Halwyn, across from Gabe. Liam was already sitting next to Brett, which Theo wasn’t sure he liked, but also realized that he had absolutely no control over. He remembered how Liam had told him about punching Brett in the throat, and leaned in close enough to whisper, “You okay?”

Liam stared at him. “There are so many things you could be referring to right now. I think I’m going to need you to narrow it down.” He smiled slightly, and Theo’s heart leapt. Maybe Liam wasn’t mad?

_Focus, Theo,_ he told himself. This was about Liam’s comfort. “Are you okay sitting there, I mean?” he asked, “We can switch.”

“I’m okay,” Liam whispered back. He shot him a shy smile. “Thanks, though.”

“Anything for you,” Theo mustered up the confidence to smirk.

“It concerns me when you say things like that,” Liam told him, frowning slightly.

Theo’s heart plummeted into his stomach and he opened his mouth to say something to make it better, but Halwyn drew his attention away. “It’s weird that we all happened to get this opportunity, isn’t it?” he asked in his unidentifiable accent, “Suspicious.”

“Uh, yeah,” Theo said, glancing at Liam, who was talking to Gabe and Nolan across the table. He tried to pull his mind back to the case, but all he wanted to do was talk to Liam. “Yeah…why do you say that?”

Halwyn shrugged. “I didn’t ask for a room here, but a night and a meal free in one of the most beautiful lodges in the country is hard to say no to.” He eyed Theo suspiciously, which wasn’t new. Halwyn seemed to be wary of everybody.

“It’s true,” Theo agreed, as the food was brought out, “I’m not complaining though.”

“Don’t trust things that come too easily,” he warned with a frown.

Over dinner, Theo and Liam talked to everyone at the table between the two of them, but rarely to each other. The tension between them didn’t go unnoticed, and Theo watched Brett get more and more confident with Liam as dinner went on. He hated to assume what Liam wanted or to think that he would ever allow Theo to “save” him, but every time he looked over at them, he remembered lying in bed together, Liam telling him about punching Brett in the throat and letting Theo comfort him until he fell asleep. Liam may be perfectly capable of fighting his own battles, but sometimes maybe it was nice not to have to. Theo stuck close to his side as the group made their way into the rec room, and pulled Liam aside into a shadowy alcove as the others went inside.

“Theo, what-“ Liam’s eyes were wide, shining in the dim light.

“What are you thinking? About suspects?” Theo asked.

Liam relaxed, but almost seemed to be disappointed. “Everyone’s pretty nice, I guess. Not that that keeps them from being a suspect, but they all just seem genuinely happy to be here. I don’t know much about Jiang and Tierney, but I get the impression that they haven’t been spending much time with Gabe and Nolan, so it could be either pair of them, but probably not all four, but then why would they all come together?”

Theo nodded. “Halwyn’s suspicious of the whole thing, but it’s a pretty thinly veiled set-up, so I’m surprised that more people aren’t. He’s been talking to everyone too, but I get the feeling he’s focusing in on us,” he added.

“Right,” Liam agreed, “And then there’s Brett and Lori and Sydney. They seem perfectly harmless, but Brett is hyper-focused on me, which could be a diversionary tactic, or he could be testing our cover.”

“Or he could just see how hot you are and want to get with you,” Theo rolled his eyes and then froze. He hadn’t meant to say that out loud. _Shit._

Liam gaped at him. “Liam,” Theo started carefully, “I didn’t mean-“

“You think I’m hot?” he asked.

Theo was totally caught off-guard. “Uh…yeah?”

It was difficult to see in the bad lighting, but Theo watched Liam’s face cycle through multiple emotions: surprise, embarrassment, pleasure, and finally frustration.

“Theo,” he gritted out, reaching towards him, but then aborting the movement, hands falling back to his sides. “I can’t – we really need to talk about this, but we can’t lose focus. I can’t do this until we’re finished here.”

Theo reached out to take one of Liam’s hands. “I know,” he said softly, “You’re right. But, just – tell me?”

Liam shook his head. “We have to figure this out first. God, Theo, we’ve already wasted so much time.”

“Okay,” Theo squeezed his hand, “You’re right, you’re always right. Whatever this is, we’ll figure it out afterwards. For now, let’s be the world’s most sickening engaged couple.”

Liam grinned and pulled Theo into a hug, not letting go of his hand as he pulled him out of the shadows towards the rec room.

“Mr. Dunbar,” Kevin interrupted before they could make it inside, where they could hear some of the others playing charades, “I have a call for you.”

“Oh,” Liam looked at Theo, “Yeah, it’s probably Scott or Mason. You should come too.”

Theo and Liam followed Kevin to the front desk, where he left them with the phone, going into the next room to give them privacy.

Liam picked the phone up and beckoned Theo closer to listen in.

“Liam?” It was Scott. He sounded worried. Theo stepped closer, leaning in to the phone to hear better, and resting a hand on the small of Liam’s back.

“Yeah,” he glanced at Theo, but didn’t move away from his hand. “Theo’s here too. Listening.”

“Good,” Scott said quickly, “Look, you can’t tell anyone, or we’ll have a panic – well, even more of a panic than we already have, but it’s happening. Right now.”

“But everyone’s…you know,” Liam glanced around. There was no one in sight, but that didn’t mean that no one was listening.

“All of the suspects are with you,” Scott agreed, “Stiles thinks it was set up to trigger remotely. The base lodge is in chaos. Do you have any leads?”

“Too many,” Theo said.

“Alright. You need to find out who has access to the base lodge. If anyone has phone service or anything electronic that would work. The panic broke out over social media and text which you shouldn’t have access to up there. Stiles and Lydia and Mason are all working on tracking an IP address or something, but to be honest, I’m not sure I ever really know what Stiles is talking about.”

“Okay, so we just narrow it down?” Liam asked.

“Yeah. And fast. We need to stop this before anyone gets hurt.”

“Thanks, Scott,” Theo said.

“Be careful,” Scott relied, and hung up.

Liam hung up the phone and then crowded into Theo, pressing his face into Theo’s neck and whispering, “Do we know what we’re doing?”

Theo brought a hand up to cradle the back of Liam’s head and buried his face in his hair. “I would say split up and see how much ground we can cover, but we can’t have people getting suspicious, he murmured, “Play it by ear. If we need to talk privately…sit in my lap?” He pulled away and looked at Liam properly, waiting for his reaction.

Liam grinned at him. “Okay,” he said, unravelling himself from Theo and threading their fingers together. “Can we go and play some games now? I think I heard something about Pictionary.”

“Course,” Theo grinned back. His head spun and his heart soared as Liam pulled him along. He wasn’t sure he could take all of the ups and downs that he was feeling. Sometimes he felt so close to finally being able to tell Liam how he felt, but other times he wasn’t so sure if Liam would reciprocate. Either way, he probably had a good point that whatever it was that they needed to figure out needed to be figured out after all of this was over.

In the rec room, they found the others arguing over which games to play, and settled into arguing on the side of Pictionary. They ended up with a deck of cards, playing a cutthroat game of spoons, raiding a liquor cabinet to make things more interesting. Eventually things fizzled down to Theo playing poker with Halwyn, Tierney, Nolan, Gabe, and a very hopeful Lori, who seemed to have set her sights on Nolan. Theo observed them casually as they played. Noticing the small exchanges between Gabe and Nolan, he was pretty sure she didn’t stand a chance with either of them. Liam was across the room, talking with Quinn, Aaron, and Sydney, as they watched Jiang play what looked like an intense game of checkers with Brett.

Liam caught his eye when he looked over, and smiled, excusing himself as he got up and made his way over to lean on the back of Theo’s chair. “How’s it going?” he asked.

“Better now,” Theo grinned, running his nose along Liam’s cheek.

“Can I sit?” Liam asked.

Theo pushed his chair a bit away from the table, giving Liam room to slide into his lap, resting his forehead against Theo’s temple as he watched them play. Theo curled an arm around his waist, lifting his hand slightly so that Liam could make an indifferent noise.

“Do you play, Liam?” Tierney asked.

“A little,” Liam’s hand drifted up to play with the hairs at the base of Theo’s neck. Theo felt a shiver run down his spine and fought hard not to think about Liam being in his lap. “He’s gonna call, by the way.”

“Liam!” Theo glared at him.

“What? It’s your turn! You weren’t gonna call?” Liam raised his eyebrows at Theo.

“I call,” Theo sighed.

Liam smirked and put his mouth next to Theo’s ear. “No service. Eyes on our neighbors,” he breathed.

Theo shivered, and he gave Liam a playful smirk before pulling him closer and whispering, “Two o’clock.”

Liam nosed his hear and then glanced around the table, picking out Halwyn where Theo had indicated.

“If that’s what being engaged is like, Jiang better put a ring on it soon,” Tierny told them, grinning.

“We’re off to bed, I think,” Aaron announced from the other side of the room, as he and Quinn stood up, “It was nice to get to know you all.”

Various goodnights followed them out the door, and a minute or two later, Liam climbed off of Theo’s lap. “I’m going to grab my sweatshirt from the room,” he told him, “Need anything.”

“I’m okay, thanks,” Theo smiled. Liam bent to kiss his cheek, almost the corner of his mouth, and then left. Theo stared after him.

“You two are lucky to have each other,” Nolan observed, maybe a little forlornly, glancing subtly at Gabe.

“Yeah,” Theo agreed, “It was kind of an uphill battle, but it’s all worth it.” He felt himself start to smile without really trying.

About ten minutes later, Theo was starting to worry that Liam wasn’t back yet. He knew that he had gone after Quinn and Aaron, but he had figured he would come back for Theo before doing anything. Obviously, Liam could take care of himself, but –

There was a loud crash from upstairs, and Theo bolted out of his seat, noticing, as he did, that Halwyn had risen too.

“He probably tripped over something,” Theo told the silent room, “I’m gonna go make sure he’s okay.”

He tried not to sprint from the room, but broke into a run as soon as he was around the corner. There were footsteps behind him, but only one pair. He knew exactly whose they were, but he wasn’t sure why they were following him. He skidded into the hall that his and Liam’s room was on and caught a glimpse of Liam climbing to his feet next to a shattered vase and sprinting around the corner. He caught up to the him in the entrance hall, where Liam was tugging on a pair of ski boots.

“Liam, what –“

“They’re going to the base. There’s a bomb – we have to go!” Liam said, urgently, flinging Theo’s snowboard boots at him and rushing out the door.

He pulled them on without hesitation, forgoing a coat or anything heavier than what he had on in favor of slamming out of the door and yanking his snowboard from the rack. The snow was coming down heavily now, and he could just barely make out three figures skiing away towards Alpha. He swore, slamming his foot into the bindings, and pushed away. The door opened behind him, and someone called out to him, but he kept going.

It was a terrible idea. The night was dark, the wind biting and the snow flying in his face. He didn’t bother to strap his other foot in when he made it to the top of the slope, setting it on the board next to the binding instead. He was freezing, and not gaining much ground on Liam or the other two, but he pointed his board down the nearly vertical incline and following after them. They had done Alpha in daylight, but when they came up on the turnoff for either Chimera or True Alpha, Theo found himself taking on the double diamond at breakneck pace in a dark blizzard. It was treacherous, and Theo was sure that if he could actually see what he was doing he would be even more terrified, but drawing up alongside Liam as they pushed on made the insanity worth it.

They were just starting to gain on the other two when Liam rose up suddenly next to him, flailing through the air and then tumbling down the slope.

“Liam!” Theo raced after him, and then took his foot out of the binding, planting it in the snow to bring himself to a stop. He yelled out as he felt something tear, a jolt of pain flare through his leg, but gritted his teeth and pulled himself over to Liam.

“I’m fine,” Liam grunted, “Just got the wind knocked out of me.” He sat up, untangling his skis and poles. “You have to go after them. I’m right behind you.”

“I don’t think I can,” Theo gritted out. He tried to move his leg and gasped in pain. He caught Liam looking at him in terror. “It’s fine, I think I just tore something.”

“It’s not – I can’t leave you here, Theo. You’ll freeze to death!”

“You can’t let them get away –“ A loud noise, like the rumbling of an engine sounded from up the mountain, and they both looked up to see a snowmobile gliding down the slope to come to a stop next to them.

“Liam,” Halwyn said, jumping off of the snowmobile, “Take this and go after them. I can get Theo to the Wild Hunt.”

“I don’t –“ Liam looked torn.

“You have to go,” Theo told him, “I’ll be fine.”

“How do I know I can trust you?” Liam scowled.

“You don’t really have time for those kinds of questions. You have to go after them..”

“Please, Liam?” Theo begged, “People are going to die.”

“Okay,” Liam threw his poles down and stomped out of his skis. “Okay.” He leaned over Theo for a moment and said, “Please be safe?”

“I will if you will,” Theo’s smile was marred by pain. He knew that Liam saw it, but he didn’t say anything. Instead he took Theo’s jaw gently in both hands and pressed a long, desperate kiss to his forehead. And with that, he swung himself onto the snowmobile and was away.

Halwyn helped Theo out of his snowboard and to his feet. “These are rentals, right? We’ll leave them here,” he said, and looped Theo’s arm over his shoulder. It was tricky climbing down a double diamond without hurting himself further, but Halwyn seemed to know the trail well, and soon they were stumbling their way into the Wild Hunt. Halwyn unlocked the door to one of the cabins that looked directly out onto the trail, and then helped Theo inside and onto the sofa.

“Try to get those boots off,” he instructed, carrying a pile of blankets over to him. “And then strip down.”

Theo stared at him.

“Staying in those wet clothes will give you hypothermia. Strip down and then wrap up in the blankets. Body heat is best, but I’m not that so-called fiancé of yours and you weren’t out there very long anyways.”

Theo froze and looked up. Halwyn smiled. “No, you’re not that obvious. It’s my job to be observant.” He tossed something small and soft at Theo. His wallet, and inside was a badge. “Homeland Security,” Halwyn explained.

“Did you know we were FBI?” Theo asked, putting the wallet aside and pulling off his shirt before wrapping up in a couple of blankets.

“I thought you might be our terrorists at first,” Halwyn admitted, “But then, I’m sure you thought the same of me.”

Theo shimmied his pants down to his ankles, where they bunched up above his boots, grateful that the blankets were so big. “How did you figure it out, then?”

“I thought to call and ask if the FBI had anyone here. Got a real piece of work on the phone,” He brought a steaming mug over and set it on the table next to Theo, as he pulled the boot off of his good foot.

Theo snorted in laughter. “That could literally be anyone.”

“Lydia, I think?”

“Sounds about right,” he gasped as he untied the boot, feeling the material move around his ankle.

“How badly does it hurt?” Halwyn moved around to start working the boot gently off of his foot. Theo hissed in pain.

“A hell of a fucking lot,” he gritted out. “I think I felt something tear.”

“It’s probably a bad sprain,” he said, “We’ll probably need to get you to a hospital sometime in the near future.”

The boot finally came off of his foot with an explosion of pain. He cried out and then took a breath, trying to think. “You need to go after Liam. What if-“

“Homeland Security and the FBI both sent in backup. Liam won’t be alone,” Halwyn assured him.

“I need to-“ Theo sat up again.

“You need to tell that boy how you feel _after_ you go to the hospital. Which you’re not doing until you’ve warmed up.”

“I can’t make him do this on his own,” Theo argued.

“Listen, my friend,” Halwyn firmly crossed his arms, “I know your story. You’re not in charge. You’re a criminal consultant. Liam is the real agent. He knows how to do his job.”

Theo sighed and fell back against the sofa. “Can I get some clothes, at least?” he asked.

Halwyn nodded and disappeared down the hall. Theo watched until he was out of sight, and then tried to stand, which proved to be a terrible idea. Pain flashed through his ankle, sending him dizzily back to the couch. “Fine,” he sighed, “I guess I’ll just wait here.”

The hour or two that passed before Halwyn deemed it acceptable to take him to the hospital seemed interminable. Once there, it was a lot more waiting, streaming news on his phone to keep up with the aftermath of what had happened at the ski lodge. He missed Liam to a magnitude that he hadn’t felt before. To spend so much time together made any amount of time apart feel like an eternity. He hadn’t called or texted. Theo knew the piles of paperwork that came along with even the simplest undercover ops, but he was growing increasingly more worried that the silence came as a reaction to whatever relationship had been forming between them. And Theo couldn’t leave the hospital to do anything about it.

An hour or so after Halwyn had left, a knock came at the door to his room. He barely had time to squash the hope that Liam had come to confess his undying love (hours alone in a hospital made him dramatic), when the door swung open.

“Theo,” Scott McCall nodded, “How’s it going? I hear things got a bit icy out there.” The head of the division gave a puppyish smile at his own joke.

“Severe ankle sprain and mild hypothermia,” Theo agreed, “I’m mostly better. They’re releasing me in another hour or two, and then I can go in to work-“

“That’s okay,” Scott made a sympathetic face, “Take it easy for a few days. You’ve earned it. I just wanted to let you know that everything’s taken care of. Nobody was hurt, and Quinn and Aaron have been taken into custody.”

“You came here in person to tell me that?” Theo asked.

“Yeah,” Scott shrugged, “You’ve done well.” He moved to the edge of the bed, holding something out. “So I didn’t want this to be too painful this time.”

Theo grunted and extracted his good leg from under the covers.

Scott snapped the plastic anklet around his ankle, smiling easily. “You’re back!”

“Thanks for not letting Malia do that,” Theo grimace.

“She means well,” Scott frowned, “Anyways, I brought somebody else for you. I’ll let you two talk for a bit.”

Theo tried not to feel too disappointed when Mason took over Scott’s place by his side.

“How’s Liam?” he asked as soon as Mason sat down. He never bothered around Mason to pretend that Liam wasn’t his main interest. He may not approve of Theo, but he knew what it looked like when somebody was in love with his best friend, and Mason had _always_ known how Theo felt about Liam.

“Busy,” Mason watched him carefully, “And not telling me anything. What happened with you two at the summit lodge?”

Theo looked away for a second, but Mason wasn’t about to be let him off easy anytime soon. “We almost kissed,” Theo admitted.

“In front of people, or –“

“In our room,” Theo looked at him, “He’s okay, right? I can deal with him hating me as long as he’s okay.”

“Did you do something to make him hate you?” Mason asked, an eyebrow raised.

“I don’t know!” Theo exclaimed, “He hasn’t called or texted.”

Mason sat forward in his chair. “Okay, listen,” he said seriously, “Before we go any farther, I want you to know that I still don’t like you.”

Theo rolled his eyes. “Noted.”

“But Liam does,” Mason continued, making Theo’s heart beat faster, “A lot. He’s just not good at telling people that he likes them with words. Like an adult. He’ll pull your pigtails and then hide when the real feelings come up. You’re going to have to do this yourself.”

“Yeah, well in case you haven’t noticed, I’m stuck in the hospital,” Theo frowned.

“I’ll drive you over to the office as soon as you’re released,” Mason assured him. “Liam will still be there, probably buried in paperwork, and Scott’s going to want to cross-examine you anyways.” He stood up and crossed to the door. “I think it goes without saying that if you fuck this up we’ll all kill you.”

Theo grimaced, and Mason’s smile pulled across his face before he left the room.

“Alright!” Scott walked in with a friendly smile, “Let’s get started so we can get you out of here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really am sorry! I swear they'll get together next chapter!!!


	5. Epilogue (Liam)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for waiting so patiently for this - I hope it was worth the wait. I've had a picture of this ending in my head since I first started writing this, so it had to be done this way. A proper rom-com ending :)  
> Thank you so much to all of you for reading and sticking with it and loving it as much as I do! Your comments always brighten up my day - I love knowing what everyone's thinking!  
> Theo has never been my favorite character, so going into this fic was kind of just fun and games, but now that it's ending, I already miss writing about these two :(  
> I've considered writing a prequal to this pic (I do have an entire back story, although I'm not sure it's necessarily worth telling), and I would also love to do a different au with them if an idea for one strikes me, so let me know what you think! Either way, I won't be starting anything else until I've finished one of my other fics (which should be in a few weeks), because three at once was a little much...  
> That being said, enjoy the final installment of Black Diamond!

Liam was totally swamped. The amount of paperwork that came with taking down terrorists, deactivating a bomb, going undercover, and handling a CI was ridiculous. Scott himself was over at the hospital, debriefing Theo for whatever reason, Mason had disappeared, and nobody else seemed to have any interest in helping Liam. The result was that he was stressed out and exhausted, still aching from his race down the mountain. He couldn’t stop thinking about Theo. Scott had called briefly to let him know that he was okay, but Liam suddenly had these _feelings._ And he was terrified of them. Nearly kissing Theo had started a new twist to the Theo Spiral, where his feeling were suddenly much stronger. Forcing himself to leave Theo hurt in a blizzard in nothing but jeans and a thin sweater on the most dangerous slope on the mountain had left him in no doubt. He wanted so badly to go and see him. At the same time, he wanted desperately to just ignore all of his problems until they eventually went away. Cowardly, maybe, but it was much easier than having to admit that he was probably in love with Theo. He dropped his head onto his desk with an internal groan and a flutter of papers.

All of a sudden, a hush seemed to come over the office. Probably Scott was back. He glanced up at the senior offices to see if Stiles would try sliding down the bannister (again), it was late enough, and he was probably on his first cup of espresso by now. At least. But Stiles was in his office, swinging back and forth between his computer screens and yelling over his shoulder at Lydia, who rolled her eyes with a smile and returned brief replies. Nothing out of the usual.

“Liam.”

He couldn’t think of another reason for his heart to soar so suddenly with happiness at the sound of Theo’s voice, except for the feelings that he was trying so hard to ignore. He spun around and saw Theo, ankle bound tightly, crutches under his arms. He was so busy cataloguing every part of Theo that he barely noticed Mason slipping past him, up the stairs to Stile’s office.

“Theo,” he breathed, “You’re okay.”

“Yeah,” Theo smiled, seeming not to notice the rest of the office very blatantly watching them, not that Liam necessarily noticed either. “Look, I needed to ask you – I needed to tell you –“

Liam watched Theo struggling with his words, something that he had never known him to have trouble with before, and felt his heart race. He pushed away from his desk, staring at him.

Theo took a deep breath and started again. “You don’t like it when I say that I would follow you anywhere. That I want whatever you want. I don’t mean that I have no opinion. But I want more than anything else for you to be happy. I will go anywhere with you because just being with you is enough. I’ll do what you do because you make everything more fun. I don’t want to spend time with you because that’s all there is. I want so spend time with you because that will _always_ be better than not spending time with you…Liam, what I’m trying to say –“ He hobbled closer, and Liam felt himself stand to meet Theo halfway.

“I think I love you,” Liam blurted out before he could stop himself.

“Thank god,” Theo breathed, hooking his crutches more firmly under his arms so that he could take Liam’s face gently in both hands, running his thumbs gently across the tops of Liam’s cheekbones, “Because I’m positive that I love you right back.”

Liam’s breath was whisked right out of his lungs, and before his brain could catch up to what was happening, he was kissing Theo, slowly but passionately, lips moving together, tongues darting out to taste, pulling as close as possible without knocking Theo off balance. There was a roaring in his ears, which he realized vaguely when they broke apart, just for a second for air, was actually standing ovation from the entire office. As much as he loved kissing Theo, something he was sure he would never get tired of, he wasn’t sure he wanted to do much more of it in front of his entire division of the FBI. Instead, he wrapped his arms tightly around Theo, feeling him return the hug, and buried his face in the crease between his shoulder and his neck.

“Finally,” he whispered.

And Theo kissed the side of his head before whispering back.

“Finally.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, loves!


End file.
